


Personal Tutor

by Dressed_In_Darkness



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Anal Sex, Bottom Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Closeted Character, Coming Out, Coming of Age, Consensual Sex, F/M, First Time, First Time Bottoming, First Time Topping, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Hand Jobs, In Character? I Don't Know Her, M/M, POV First Person, POV Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Self-Indulgent, Sexual Tension, Shy Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Top Eren Yeager, Trans Armin Arlert, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-06
Updated: 2018-09-15
Packaged: 2018-11-09 21:50:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 52,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11113572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dressed_In_Darkness/pseuds/Dressed_In_Darkness
Summary: Levi never thought he had a shot with Eren Jaeger, the boy of his dreams, but that all changes when Eren asks him to become his personal tutor.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly, this is self-indulgent, so don't expect for this to be deep or anything of that sort (basically the plot won't be anything special). It's going to be a short story. I'm thinking around 4 or 5 chapters at most. I just needed to work on something new to ease myself out of a writing rut I've been in. Either way, I hope you guys enjoy it. ;)
> 
> P.S. They're both seniors in this.
> 
> You can find me on [Tumblr](https://weatheredwriter.tumblr.com/) <3

Eren Jaeger stood in front of me, shirtless. We were in gym class, so it wasn’t unusual for some of the boys to take off their T-shirts during basketball drills, but when Eren did, I couldn’t concentrate on anything else. Which is exactly how I ended up in this situation. I hadn’t seen the ball soaring toward me until it was too late to dodge it. It had hit me square in the face, the force of the blow knocking me backward. Now, sprawled out on the floor, I looked up pathetically at the boy responsible for my slip up.

     “Are you okay?” he asked, offering me his hand.

     “I’m fine,” I said, a little more loudly than I intended to.

     “Are you sure? Your nose is bleeding.”

     I pressed my hand over my nose, embarrassed. “I’m sure.”

     With my gaze trained on the wall, I stood up. Everyone’s eyes were on me—I could feel them staring holes into me—but I didn’t stick around long enough to take in their expressions. I bolted toward the locker room. When I was inside, away from view, I rushed to the restroom. One look at my face in the mirror bolted above the sinks confirmed that my nose was bleeding. It wasn’t too painful, but there was a considerable amount of blood. It felt warm and sticky on my lips.

     _Oh, God, Eren saw me like this!_

     Having a crush on one of the most popular boys at Trost High was unbearable. Especially when that boy was as unattainable as they come. As far as I knew, he was straight. At least he’d only ever shown an interest in girls. Ugh, why did it even matter if he saw me like this? It’s not like it would make a difference. He would never see me as anything other than the weird, quiet boy in his gym class.

     Miserable, I walked into one of the stalls and slumped down on the toilet. I pulled out a long stretch of toilet paper and crumpled it in my hand before pressing it to my nose. That’s how I was when Eren came into the restroom a few minutes later.

     I slammed the door shut so fast, the bang echoed around the room.

     Why was he in here? What the hell?

     “Sorry,” he said in a rush. “I didn’t mean to startle you. Were you...using the toilet?”

     “No! God. I’m just sitting here.”

     “Oh.” Awkward silence. Then, “Can you come out?”

     The last thing I wanted to do was come out so he could see me with a wad of toilet paper stuck fast to my face with blood. Why did he even come after me? Did he feel bad for hitting me with the ball? It wasn’t his fault I was too distracted daydreaming about him kissing me senseless. If I’d been paying more attention, this wouldn’t have happened. But it’s not like I could tell him this. I either had to go out and face him, or sit in here until he left. The latter was too embarrassing to think about, so I stood up and pulled open the stall door.

     Eren straightened up when I stepped out. “Shit, it’s bleeding a lot. I’m sorry.”

     “It’s not so bad,” I said, my voice muffled by the toilet paper.

     _So embarrassing!_

“The ball hit you pretty hard. You should go to the nurse’s office to get it checked out. Maybe even get some aspirin.”

     “No, it’s fine. Really.” I shifted from one foot to the other. “You can go back without me. I just need to rinse off my face.”

     He walked backward until the sink was behind him. Then he leaned up against it. “I actually need to talk to you about something else. Now’s probably not a good time though.”

     What could he possibly have to talk about with me? I couldn’t even make a guess. Damn, the curiosity was too much. I had to know.

     “It’s okay to talk to me about it now,” I said as I tossed the wadded-up toilet paper in the trash, aiming to appear nonchalant. “I don’t plan on going back out there, so I have time.”

     I took the sink next to his and busied myself with rinsing off the blood from my face. The cold water kept my thoughts in check. That was good. I didn’t want to come off desperate. Still, my eyes lingered on his exposed torso for a tad longer than normal. The black basketball shorts he wore hung low on his hips, revealing a taut v-line, and dear lord, was it hot in here? It was unfair how attractive he was.

     “You’re good at math, right?” he said.

     “Huh?” I blurted, my eyes snapping up to his.

     “Math. You’re good at it.”

     “Oh, yeah, I guess. Why?”

     He rubbed at the back of his neck. “I’m failing my math class. Coach says if I don’t bring my grade up soon, he’ll have to cut me from the football team. So, well, I guess I was wondering if you could tutor me. I know we don’t talk to each other much, but—”

     “I’ll do it,” I interrupted. When I realized how eager that must’ve sounded to him, heat rushed to my cheeks. “I-I mean, I don’t really mind. I wouldn’t want you to get kicked off the team or anything.”

     “Really? You’ll do it? Thanks, man.” He slapped me on the shoulder. “I can’t afford to pay you, but maybe we can work something out.”

     I waved my hands in dismissal. “No, no, it’s fine. You don’t have to pay me anything.”

     “Are you sure?” Suddenly he leaned in close, lips right at my ear. My heart jumped in my chest. “I’ve seen the way you look at me. Or, what, you think I haven’t noticed?”

     My eyes widened in shock. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t look at you in any particular way.”

     “Oh, come on, don’t play dumb. Whenever we hit the showers after class, you always choose the one next to mine. You stare me down as I’m rinsing off. You even got hard once.”

     This couldn’t be happening. The ball must’ve hit me harder than I thought. Maybe I had a concussion and this was all some vivid hallucination. Yes, that had to be the explanation, because there was no way Eren Jaeger—the boy of my dreams—knew I had the hots for him. And even if this were real, why would he want to strike up a deal with _me?_ He was straight, right?

     Right?

     My shaky laughter pierced the silence. “Um, I-I’m not sure what’s going on here. If you’re serious about getting tutored, I can offer my assistance for free. You don’t need to feel obligated to offer me anything in return. Math is relatively easy for me, so it’s not that big of a deal.”

     “That’s all you have to say? I’m kind of disappointed.” He reached out and grabbed a lock of my hair. He twirled it around his finger. “I thought for sure you would hop on the opportunity to get to know me a little better. Especially when I suggested we could work something out in order for me to pay you back for your help.”

     “B-but you’re straight,” I squeaked, in total shock now.

     He smiled, slow and beautiful. “Am I?”

What in the hell was happening? Was he being serious here? For all I knew, this could be some elaborate joke that could end with me being the laughing stock of the entire school. But what if it wasn’t? Could I really pass up the opportunity to have him at my mercy? I dreamed about having him since we both entered the seventh grade. I’d spent the last five years of my life pining over him. If there was a chance he could be serious about this, then I had to put myself out there—no matter the consequences.

     “Theoretically speaking here,” I started, swallowing hard when his bold green eyes settled on mine, “if you are being serious, how could you pay me back for my services?”

     “You want to have sex with me, don’t you? I could be your personal sex toy.”

     That was too straight forward! Was he trying to give me a heart attack?

     “U-uh, um,” I fumbled in response, looking at anything but him. My entire body was on fire. “Say I did want to have sex with you. You’d be willing to do that kind of stuff with me?”

     “Would I put the offer on the table otherwise?”

     God! I was on the verge of death here. This was too good to be true. Eren Jaeger... _Eren_ _fucking Jaeger_ had just offered to be my personal sex toy in exchange for some tutoring.

     Feeling bold, I leaned in close to him and said, “Prove it.”

     His lips were on mine a second later. I twined my fingers in his hair, desperate to get my hands on him, and pulled our bodies flush. He groaned as he turned me around to lift me onto the sink, tongue sinking into my mouth with one slow roll, erasing all rational thought with that simple movement. I didn’t care that we were in a public restroom, where we could get caught by another student. I had no intention of letting him go anytime soon. Not when kissing him felt this good.

     “Is that enough proof?” Eren whispered against my lips.

     I shook my head, sucking on his bottom lip until the taste of him was seared into my mind. “More. I want more.”

     “And you can get more if you agree that this is how I can repay you for tutoring me.”

     “But why would you offer to do these kinds of things with me when I told you I’d tutor you for free?” I was an absolute moron. Why would I remind him of that at a time like this? I wanted him in the worst of ways, yet here I was presenting him with an escape route. There was obviously a defect somewhere in this brain of mine.

     “Because I’m gay,” he said, “but everyone thinks I’m straight, and I’d like to keep it that way. I’m not quite ready to out myself to the world, but I would like to experience some things with a guy. Plus, I really do need help in math. That wasn’t a lie. I’m just spinning things around to work in our favor.”

     I leaned back against the mirror. “So this is going to be a secret kept between the two of us? Like a fling?”

     “Yeah.”

     “Why me? I’m sure there are plenty of guys here who want a piece of you. I mean, look at you!” I gestured to his sculpted abs. “I want to eat off them.”

     Why couldn’t I shut up? Jeez.

     He smirked, then said, “Haven’t you realized by now that the reason I noticed you looking at me all this time is because I was looking at you?” He pressed his lips to the skin just below my ear. “I want you.”

 

* * *

 

The next day, Eren sent me a text during first hour to tell me to meet him after school in the students' parking lot. I stared at it for the remainder of class, surprised the message stayed the same. I was having a hard time wrapping my head around this. It seemed like a dream that he was interested in me. Not that I had any hopes this would lead to anything serious between us. He’d made it clear this would be nothing more than a fling, a first-time experience for the both of us, but still. That was enough.

     The rest of the day passed by in slow motion. I kept my eyes glued to the clock in each class, which made every minute feel like an hour. By the time the final release bell rang, I was so pent up that I lunged out of my seat and sprinted out the door. I waded through a sea of students until I pushed my way through the front doors. Then I hurried to the students parking lot, where I spotted Eren leaning up against his black Toyota Tacoma, waiting for me.

     When I reached him, suddenly shy, I said, “Hi.”

     “Hi. Are you ready to go?”

     I nodded and climbed into the passenger seat when he opened the door for me. The interior of his truck was spotless, not even a speck of dust on the dashboard. “I didn’t expect you to be so cleanly,” I admitted as he slid into the driver’s seat.

     “I’m not.” He chuckled, looking a bit embarrassed. “I woke up early to clean it this morning. My mom was shocked. Usually I leave a bunch of shit in here, but you always seem to have your locker in order.”

     “You noticed how I keep my locker clean?”

     “You have the one right behind me, so yeah, I couldn’t help but see how organized you keep everything. Mine looks like someone uses it as a dumpster.”

     I laughed. “Trust me, I know.”

     He started the truck and backed out of the parking space. I had no idea where he lived, but I hoped it was far enough away to give me some time to gather my scattered thoughts. I knew he wanted me to tutor him in math, but would that be before or after we did things? What could I expect when we walked into his bedroom? A part of me wanted him to jump my bones the second we were alone, but the other part wanted to talk this out, to make sure we were on the same page. I didn’t want there to be any confusion.

     “What kind of music do you listen to?” Eren asked as he turned on the radio.

     “Anything’s fine. I’m not picky.”

     He gave me a sideways glance. “Do you have music on your phone?”

     “Yeah?” The way I phrased it made it sound like a question.

     The expression on my face must’ve amused him, because he tossed me the aux cord and said, “Put something on.”

     I mentally went through my playlists. There weren’t many embarrassing songs, but the type of music I listened to wasn’t popular. Hardly anyone shared my music taste. But I couldn’t outright deny a simple request, so I plugged in my phone and put on “Idfc” by Blackbear. The instant it started playing, Eren smirked, and for some reason that made all the blood in my body rush to my cheeks. They warmed in seconds when I realized the lyrics hit a little too close to home. Why, out of all the songs I had on my phone, had I picked this one?

     “W-where do you live, anyway?” I said in a sad attempt to direct his attention away from the song.

     “Not too far from school. We should be there in ten minutes.”

     I leaned my head back against the headrest. The smell of his cologne wafted toward me and I squirmed in place. You would think it was an aphrodisiac with how I responded to it.

     “Something wrong?” Eren asked when he noticed me fidgeting. I shook my head. “C’mon, you can be honest with me. Is something bothering you?”

     “I wouldn’t say it’s bothering me. Just... I really like the smell of your cologne.”

     With his eyes on the road, he slipped off his letterman jacket one sleeve at a time. He held it out to me. “You can wear it. I sprayed some on there before I left for school.”

     I snatched the jacket from him like he had plans to change his mind. I unbuckled, uncaring that I broke a traffic law, and put it on. It smelled so good. Holy shit! “Is it okay for me to wear this into your house? Your parents won’t find it weird?”

     “Why would they? I’ll just tell them you were cold and I lent it to you.” He grinned before reaching out to flick the collar. “Besides, you look really cute in it.”

     Caught off guard, my eyes widened. I flung my arms over my face to hide how flustered that comment had made me. “You think I’m cute?”

     “Want the truth?”

     I peeked at him and braced myself for what he was about to tell me. “Yes.”

     “I think you’re hot.”

     “Huh?” The word escaped me like a howl. “Since when?”

     “Since the beginning of this semester. When I first saw you in gym class, you were wearing those short shorts, because you forgot to bring a change of clothes and that’s all Coach had to spare. I literally stared at you throughout the entire class. I’m surprised you didn’t notice.”

     I groaned. “Of course I didn’t notice. I was too humiliated to focus on anything. Those were basically booty shorts.”

     “They were amazing,” he said with a wolfish smile.

     I smacked him on the arm. “No, shut up. You’re not the one who had to wear them in front of everyone. I almost died.”

     “I almost died too. I had to get creative with how I hid my boner.”

     “Stop it!” I bellowed. You could grill hamburger patties on my face by now. If he kept this up, I would melt. “How can you say all this without feeling embarrassed? God, have mercy on me here. I didn’t even know you were gay until yesterday. This is like a whole new world for me.”

     Eren turned into your typical suburban neighborhood. All the houses looked the same. “So, you never entertained the idea that I could be gay?”

     “I entertained it more than you’d like to know,” I confessed, “but I never believed you were. You hit on all the cheerleaders like it’s your profession. You also dated Annie for some time. I mean, you kind of made it hard for me to believe you could be anything but straight.”

     “I never did anything passed flirting. Even with Annie, the most I felt comfortable with was kissing. But after a while, I couldn’t even do that anymore, so we broke up.”

     To keep myself from staring at him in disbelief, I turned my head to peer out the window. I thought he would be experienced when it came to sex, especially with how he’d kissed me yesterday in the restroom—not to mention the way he wanted to pay me back for tutoring him. But if what he’d just told me were true, then that would make him a virgin, and in turn that meant I’d be his first.

     This was too much for me to handle! I needed life support!

     “Here we are,” he said, pulling into the driveway of a two-story house, next to a white BMW. “Looks like my dad isn’t home yet. It’ll just be my mom.”

     He shut off the engine and pushed open the door before he stepped out of the truck. I followed suit, determined not to make this awkward. Sure, meeting his mom would be a little nerve-wracking, but I could handle it without making a complete fool out of myself. Or at least I hoped I could handle it. I wasn’t much of a people person. Keeping up conversations was not a talent of mine, but casual pleasantries were manageable.

     I was praying I didn’t screw this all up.

As we walked up to the front door, Eren said, “My mom will probably hover over us today, to make sure I’m actually getting the tutoring I need.”

     “Oh.” I tried not to sound disappointed, but failed rather miserably. I should’ve expected something like this to happen. It was natural for his mom to be concerned about his grades.

     “I can come pick you up tomorrow, if you’re not busy. Both her and my dad will be working, so we can have the house all to ourselves.”

     I looked at him. “I have plans in the morning, but I’ll be free in the afternoon. You can pick me up then.”

     “Okay, just text me your address later.” We reached the door. He unlocked it and we stepped inside the entryway. It smelled like freshly baked sugar cookies in here. “My mom always bakes whenever I tell her I’m bringing home a friend, so be prepared for her to shove a plate of goodies in your face the moment she sees you. She’s reliable when it comes to that.”

     Just as he finished telling me this, his mother, who looked almost exactly like him, came around the corner with a plate of snickerdoodles in hand. “You must be Levi,” she said while she held the plate out until I took a cookie. “I want to thank you for taking on the responsibility of tutoring Eren. He’s been struggling with math a lot this year, but I’m hoping with your help, he’ll be able to raise his grade up.”

     “I’m sure he’ll be able to get it up,” I assured her.

     Beside me, Eren snorted as he held back laughter. I couldn’t figure out what he found so funny, then it hit me all at once.

     _He’ll be able to get it up. Did I have to word it that way? Oh, my god!_

“What are you laughing about?” his mom asked, brows knitting together in confusion.

     Eren grabbed a cookie. “It’s nothing. I just remembered a joke someone told me at school, but we’ll be in my room if you need anything. We should get started before it gets too late.”

     “Okay. Work hard.”

     Eren walked down the hall, and I nearly tripped in my hurry to follow him. When I knew we were out of ear shot, I said, “I cannot believe I just said that to your mom. I didn’t mean it to come out that way.”

     Out of nowhere, he pressed me against the wall, body so close to mine there was no space between us. “But you were right,” he whispered into my ear, making me shudder. “I’ll definitely be able to get it up.”

     “I—Your mom is right down the hall. She could see us.”

     He took my hand and steered me into a room I figured had to be his. It was big, with dark-grey walls that were covered in various posters of different bands. I could only catch a glimpse of them before Eren threw himself onto his bed, backpack and all. His black T-shirt rode up on his stomach, revealing warm, kissable skin. “Come here,” he said, patting the empty spot next to him.

     I slid my backpack off, set it on the floor, then plopped down beside him. My heart fluttered when he rolled over and put his head in my lap. “I thought we were actually going to work on math.”

     “We will in a minute.” He bit into his cookie and the reality of the situation hit me.

     I was in Eren Jaeger’s room. His head was in my lap. And if his mom weren’t here, we would be doing a lot more. Although I imagined this happening more times than I cared to admit, I never once believed it could happen. I wanted to make sure this was real, that I wasn’t dreaming. So, clumsy, I leaned down and kissed him full on the mouth. His lips tasted of sugar, and when his tongue met mine, my stomach quivered with desire. I wanted so much more than this.

     “Mm,” he hummed when I drew back, pressing his lips together as though he were remembering how my kiss felt.

     I stared down at him, at the flecks of gold in his green eyes, and words spilled out of me, unfiltered. “You’re so hot.”

     His response to that was to put his hand behind my neck to bring me down for another kiss. I wanted to wrap myself up in this moment like it was a heavy blanket I could hide under. I never wanted it to end, but I knew it would. I knew I was setting myself up to get hurt. Yet I kept kissing him.

     He was the one to pull back this time. “Fuck, you’re too tempting, but we really should start working on math. My mom will come check in on us soon.”

     We rearranged ourselves on the bed. Then he slipped off his backpack and dug around in it for a while before he grabbed his math book. He opened it up between us.

     “I hate math,” he said.         

     “By the time I’m through with you, you’ll be a pro.”

     A smirk appeared on his face. “Hopefully I’ll be a pro at something else too.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is so self-indulgent that it's kind of gross lmao. Ah, don't judge me based on this fic. Is2g this is just for fun and I can write better stories than this! *sobs*
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy this trash ride, though. Football player Eren is a blessing (Eren is a blessing, let's be honest here).

I’d spent yesterday afternoon drilling Eren on math formulas, but I doubt anything worth remembering stuck. He hadn’t exactly been paying attention to what I was trying to teach him. Whenever I showed him how to solve a problem, feigning concentration, he’d leaned in and kissed me. My response had been the same every time: to blush madly, stutter out some stupid nonsense, then pretend that his math homework was more important. Which was a lie! What could be more important than having him kiss me? Ugh, was this real life? It felt like I was dreaming. And to think he planned on picking me up later today.

     Someone needed to pinch me. Preferably hard and in a sensitive area. That way I could be sure this was actually happening.

     “Hello. Earth to Levi,” Isabel said as she waved her hand in front of my face until my eyes focused on her. “You have a creepy smile going on.”

     “Oh, I do?” I let out a nervous laugh. As heat began to pool in my cheeks, I turned around and pretended to organize a pile of CD’s. It wasn’t a good idea to flip out at work when your coworker went to the same school as you. “I’m just thinking about something stupid.”

     Lies!

     She narrowed her eyes and rested her elbows on the counter between us to lean toward me. She almost knocked over the cash register in her hurry. “I didn’t know something stupid could make you blush so hard.”

     “I’m not blushing! It’s just—It’s hot in here.”

     “It’s chilly in here, Levi. Now I know you’re lying.”

     Before I could knock her down a peg or two, someone walked into the record store and Isabel went to greet them. Good. I couldn’t deal with her right now. You’d think working with her for the past six months would better prepare me for these random interrogation sessions, but I couldn’t withhold any information when she got down to business. It was a good thing her and Eren didn’t run in the same circles. She definitely would have known something was up between us then.

     While she was busy showing the customer around, I fished out my cell phone from my back pocket and checked my text messages. I had several from Farlan, my best friend since second grade. He wanted to go to a movie tonight. After I replied to him, I scrolled through the rest of my texts and nearly screamed when I saw one from Eren.

     **Eren: I was planning to ditch football practice today, but my dad gave me shit for it. Guess we can’t hang out at my house.**

I had no idea who Eren’s dad was, but I wanted him dead for this.

**Me: It’s cool. We’ll have to make it for another day.**

     While I was simmering in disappointment, dying internally, my phone vibrated in my hand. I looked down at the screen.

     **Eren: Fuck that. I want to see you. Come to practice with me. Coach lets us bring volunteers to pass out water.**

**Me: You want me to be your water boy? I don’t think so.**

What in the hell was I saying? What if he dropped the invitation because he couldn’t tell I was teasing?  

**Eren: Are you sure I can’t persuade you?**

     A couple minutes after his text came through, a picture followed. It was a classic bathroom mirror selfie, except he wasn’t wearing any clothes and he was dripping wet, like he’d just stepped out of the shower a short while ago. The sink blocked the bottom half of his body, but still, I was choking. Was this even allowed? Was I imagining this? I scrubbed at my eyes with my fists, then stared down at my phone again to see the very same picture.

     Fuck...

     God was real!

     **Eren: Did I convince you?**

     I typed up a quick response and sent it before I could change my mind.

     **Me: You cut off the best part.**

     **Eren: You want to see my dick? Then come to practice. I’ll show you in person.**

**Me: Congratulations, you just convinced me. ;)**

     I needed to stop being a tease when I didn’t have the guts to follow up the act in person. Eren would come pick me up expecting some flirt and would be met with the same blushing virgin from yesterday. The one who couldn’t even form words around him without stuttering. Still, teasing him felt too nice to pass up.

     **Eren: Practice starts in half an hour. Can I come pick you up now?**

     I glanced at the clock. My shift ended in ten minutes. I wouldn’t be able to make it home before he got there.

     **Me: I don’t get off work for another ten minutes. I’ll just meet you at school.**

     Instead of getting another message from him, my phone started vibrating with an incoming call. I darted a glance in Isabel’s direction and saw that she was still talking to the man from earlier, so I felt safe accepting it.

     “Hello?” I answered in the ugliest squeaky voice anyone could imagine. So much for being a tease. Nerves were determined to make me a fumbling mess.

     “Hey, where do you work? I can pick you up there.”

     “You don’t have to,” I said. “I don’t mind driving to school.”

     “I know, but I want to see you before practice starts. I mean, it’s not like I can touch you in front of the entire football team, and I’ve been dying to touch you.”

     I made a noise that made me wish the floor would open up and swallow me whole. It sounded like a shocked moan. Was that even physically possible?

     End me.

     “Levi?” Eren said when I stayed quiet.

     “Oh, uh,” I blurted out, “I work at the record store on Ashland Avenue. It’s called Vinyl Record. Have you heard of it?”

     “Yeah, I know where it is. I can be there in fifteen minutes. Is that all right?”

     “That’s perfect,” I said. “I’ll see you then.”

     I ended the call and wasted no time in hurrying into the backroom, where Hanji, the store owner, was sorting through some records we just got in that morning. When she noticed me standing in the doorway, she put down the notepad she held and asked, “Is everything okay, Levi? You’re a little red.”

     Unbelievable. Could my face cooperate with me for five minutes? If I kept this up, everyone would know something was up.

     “Yeah, everything’s fine. It’s just that my shift ends soon and Petra still isn’t here. Should Isabel take over for me for now?”

     Hanji stood up and stretched her arms above her head before she waved me off. “Go ahead and clock out. I’ll be in charge of the register until Petra comes in.”

     “Ok, thanks. I’ll see you on Monday.”

     I rushed out of the room without waiting for a response, and went into her office – which was really just a maintenance closet she’d converted into an office – to clock out on the crappy machine she had no intentions of replacing until it broke. After a solid five minutes of reentering my work ID, it finally accepted the information. I was glad I hadn’t brought much with me today. All I had to grab on my way out was my coat. Then I was home free.

     Of course, as I was gathering my stuff, Isabel came bounding in with a smile I knew all too well. That smile promised trouble.

     “No,” I said, final. “I have places to be.”

     She wiggled her eyebrows. “Does this have to do with that guy you’ve been crushing on?”

     Leave it to me to divulge all the information about my crush except for his name. If Isabel caught sight of Eren, she would put two and two together. _Anyone_ would be able to put two and two together. It wasn’t a secret that I was gay and never hung out with any guy aside from Farlan, who everyone knew was my best friend.

     “No,” I said, cursing the wobble in my voice.

     She pointed at my face as though all my secrets were written on my forehead. “It does have something to do with him, doesn’t it?” My silence must have given me away, because she shouted, “I knew it!”

     I clapped my hand over her mouth. “Okay, it does deal with him, but you need to keep it down. He’s not exactly out of the closet yet. Plus, what we have going on isn’t serious. We’re just...”

     “Fooling around?” she said against my palm.

     I dropped my hand. “Something like that.”

     “So, you’re finally going to lose your virginity? You better tell me how it goes.”

     I waggled my fingers at her. “No way, Isabel Magnolia.”

     Without giving her time to rope me back into the conversation, I escaped out the front door. I liked working with Isabel, but sometimes she could be a handful. Especially when she knew I was hiding something. But the thought of her vanished into thin air the second I spotted Eren’s truck turn the corner and head in this direction. My heart launched itself into overdrive at the sight of it, beating faster and faster the closer it got. I couldn’t help but hide my face as he came to a stop in front of me, feeling embarrassed about those texts I’d sent earlier.

     As I was gathering the courage to face him, the passenger window rolled down and Eren said, “Get in here.”

     Without looking up, I pulled the door open and climbed inside. My head was still down when he leaned in and tried to kiss me. I shrieked, surprised, and blocked my face with my hands. His eyebrows pulled together in confusion.

     “A girl who goes to our school works here too,” I said in explanation, wanting to erase that expression from his face. “She’s very, uh, nosy. I wouldn’t put it past her to spy on us, and you said you wanted this to stay a secret.”

     Eren’s eyes lifted toward the store, then moved back down to my face. He smirked. “Don’t buckle up.” That’s all he said before he settled back in his seat and peeled off down the street. I didn’t even have time to question where he was going at this speed. He soon turned into an alleyway behind the stores and parked beside a dumpster. “Come here.”

     “What?” I said in surprise.

     He patted his lap as he slid his seat back. “Come here.”

     I looked at him for two seconds, wondered what the hell I was getting myself into, then climbed over the center console to straddle his lap.

     _Oh, my god! Oh shit! This is really happening!_

I needed to calm down, but Eren made that impossible when he put his hands on my thighs.

     “Y-you’re going to be late for practice,” I said, feeling shy and awkward. Not at all like a person who should be sitting in Eren Jaeger’s lap.

     “Does it look like I care about practice?” He leaned forward as if to prove his point, erasing any space between us. I closed my eyes and made a sound caught between a sigh and a whimper when his lips pressed against mine. I didn’t want to think about how this meant nothing to him, but everything to me. All I wanted was to get lost in this moment. So I gave in – whether it was a mistake or not, I couldn’t be sure – and it felt so good to be kissing him in his truck that nothing else mattered anymore. “Stop being so careful,” he said, giving me no time to respond before his lips were back on mine.

     Somehow hearing him say he didn’t want me to be careful with him made my self-control shatter. It took my brain a second to catch up, then my hands were in his hair, tugging his head back almost violently. I started kissing him with all the desperation I felt. The fact that he responded with enthusiasm only drove me over the edge. I eased myself up onto my knees and traced his bottom lip with my tongue, shivering when he groaned into my mouth.

     I would have been more than happy to stay like this, but his phone started ringing, and he broke away from my lips with a curse.

     “That’s Jean’s ringtone. He won’t stop calling me until I pick up.” Eren dug his cell out of his pocket and brought it to his ear. “What the fuck do you want, Jean?”

     While he spoke to his friend, I drew shapeless patterns on his arm. It was still hard to believe that he wanted to have a fling with someone like me. It wasn’t an ideal relationship, let’s be serious, but the saying “beggars can’t be choosers” flashed across my mind in bright, neon green letters. I couldn’t deny that I wanted Eren in any way I could have him. Up until yesterday, I never even allowed myself to believe I had a shot with him. Now here I was, sitting in his lap, and that was enough to quiet my thoughts down. At least for the time being.

       Just when I tuned back into his conversation, Eren said, “Shut the hell up already. Just tell Coach I’ll be a little late, because I had tutoring this morning. He’s the one that wanted me to get my math grade up.”

     I grinned. Eren may be getting tutored, but he hadn’t learned a single thing so far. He almost seemed determined to spend all our time together doing stuff like this. Did he even plan on taking our tutoring sessions seriously?

     When he hung up, he buried his face in my neck. “We need to leave.”

     “I know.”

     “I hate how I’m always so busy with practice. I want to spend time with you. What are you doing tonight?” He glanced up at me with puppy dog eyes, and I melted.

     “I’m hanging out with my friend Farlan. He wants to go watch that new action film that’s out. I forget the name.”

     Eren eyed me. “Farlan Church?”

     “Huh? Yeah, do you know him?”

     “He is on the football team. It would be hard not to know him.”

     My eyes widened to the point that it felt like they were going to tumble straight out of my head. How could I have forgotten that Farlan was on the football team? Was my brain that clogged with thoughts of Eren?

     “Oh, fuck,” I muttered.

     “He doesn’t know what’s going on between us, does he?”

     I shook my head. “No, but if he finds out, he’ll give me all types of shit for it. He wouldn’t like that all you want from me is sex. Not that his opinion will change my mind! I can make my own decisions. It’s just that he wouldn’t understand why I’d agree to something like this.” I groaned and buried my face in my hands. There was no way I could show up at the school with Eren without having some kind of explanation prepared. Sure, I could tell Farlan that I agreed to tutor him, but that wouldn’t account for me going to practice with him. Did Eren even take other people to practice?

     “If you’re that worried about it, you don’t have to go,” Eren said. There was something in his tone that caused me to look up. He looked hurt.

     “No, I want to go. I just don’t know what to tell him.”

     “Tell him you’re tutoring me and we hit it off.”

     I chewed on my lower lip, a nervous habit. “I guess that could work. He just—Well, he knows I like you.”

     “It’ll be fine. I won’t do anything to make him suspicious.”

     “Okay,” I agreed.

     I hoped Farlan would buy it and not make a big deal out of nothing.

 

\---

 

By the time Eren pulled into the school parking lot, I’d convinced myself that it didn’t matter what Farlan had to say about this whole situation. I was old enough to think for myself. Even if he disagreed with the decision I’d made, it wasn’t up to him whether I continued this relationship with Eren. It’s not like I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I was setting myself up to get hurt, that much was obvious, but it was no one else’s business but my own. Best friend or not, Farlan couldn’t tell me what to do.

     “Ready?” Eren asked as he parked in an empty space beside the bleachers.

     I nodded. “Yeah.”

     I pushed open the door and stepped out, a warm breeze ruffling my hair. From here, I could hear laughter and the all too familiar sound of Coach Turret’s booming voice as he spat out demands. Nerves worked at my stomach until I felt nauseous with it. Aside from Farlan, all the other boys in the football team had no idea who I was. Would they pick on me for tagging along and volunteering to be a water boy? Would they nag Eren for bringing me? I didn’t want to cause him any problems, even if it was his idea to bring me here.

     “Hey,” Eren said. “I have to change. Come to the locker room with me.”

     “Okay.”

     I followed him, grateful that I wouldn’t have to face everyone yet. When we reached the locker room, I felt more at ease, even relaxed as we made our way towards his locker, then he started to undress and all the tranquility I felt flew straight out the window. I’d seen him change so many times before – bless gym class – but I never let myself stare. Now there was nothing to stop me from doing just that.

     “Getting bold, are we?” Eren said as my eyes raked over his bare torso. I flushed, but before I could even think to feel embarrassed about being caught in the act, he added, “Go ahead and look. And, if I remember correctly, I told you I’d show you something in person.”

     My eyes widened. “O-oh, you don’t have to show me anything! I was teasing you earlier.”

     “So you don’t want to see it?” he asked, pushing his boxers down over his hips ever so slightly.

     God, did I want to see it.

     “Keep going,” I whispered.

     Eren grinned as he slid his boxers down far enough for me to see his growing erection. I hadn’t expected him to be hard. Was he turned on by me? The thought made blood rush to one very specific part of my body.

     “God,” I said in a mixture of arousal and mortification.

     “What?”

     “What do you mean ‘what?’” I gestured to his lower half like the answer was obvious. “You’re hard because of me. And”—I groaned—“you have such a nice dick.” When I realized what I’d said, I fumbled for some way to take back the words, but then Eren grabbed my hand and brought it to his groin. I wrapped my fingers around him, satisfied when he reacted.

     “Why are you so surprised by this?” he asked in a gruff voice. “Last night I got off fantasizing about touching you.”

     I looked up at him. “You masturbated while thinking about me?”

     “It wouldn’t be the first time.”

     If we weren’t in the locker room at school, I would not hesitate to take this further (I was so turned on, it was almost painful). But we were at school, and I was all too aware that his friends were right outside on the football field. Any one of them could walk in here at any moment, and I doubt he’d be able to come up with an excuse as to why I was holding his dick. I didn’t want this to end before it could even begin, so I pulled his boxers back up.

     When he shot me a questioning look, I asked, “How late can you stay out?”     

     “Midnight on weekends.”

     “My mom works the graveyard shift, so you can come over after I get home from the movies. If you want to, you know, pick this back up at my house.”

     Eren smiled. “Call me when you’re done at the movies.”

     After he changed into his football uniform, we left the locker room and went out onto the field, where everyone stopped what they were doing to watch us. I trained my gaze down at my feet, refusing to look up and risk the chance of meeting someone’s eyes. That’s how I remained until I felt a hand on my shoulder. Startled, I peered up and relaxed when I saw Farlan’s familiar blue eyes.

     “What are you doing here?” he asked, sliding his helmet off. He wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand.

     “Oh, I came with Eren.”

     “Yeah, I saw that much, Levi. That doesn’t explain why you came with him. I didn’t even know you knew each other.”

     I toyed with the hem of my T-shirt to avoid making eye contact. Hopefully that would make it harder for him to spot the lie I was about to tell him. “Yesterday during gym class, he asked me if I could tutor him in math. I agreed to do it. I guess he wants to get to know me a little better since we’re going to be spending more time together, so he brought me along to pass out water.” I laughed, but when Farlan didn’t join in, I stopped. “What’s wrong?”

     “Nothing,” he said, but I could tell he was lying, just like he could tell I was. Before I had a chance to change the subject, he turned around and waved Eren over.

     “What are you doing? Why are you calling him over here?”

     He didn’t answer me. I turned my attention to Eren as he strode up to us. I had no idea what to expect. Farlan was hard to read when he wanted to be.

     “What’s up?” Eren asked once he reached us. He didn’t look at me, and I was grateful he had better self-control than I did.

     Farlan threw his arm over my shoulders. “I heard Levi’s going to be your tutor and that you want to get to know him better. We’re going to the movies tonight. Want to come with?”

     “Can’t. I have plans with Jean.”

     The Eren in front of me now was the same unapproachable Eren I’d known for the past five years. The one that was cold and dismissive toward people who weren’t in his circle of friends. He hadn’t behaved like this when we were alone. Part of me wanted to believe this was all an act to keep Farlan from getting suspicious, but doubt crept in nonetheless. When he was like this, I felt small and nonexistent.  

     “Come on,” Farlan persisted, seeming unfazed by the rejection. “You can bring Jean along. It’ll be fun.”

     “He said he has plans,” I interjected.

     “Well, whatever then. Guess it’s just me and you tonight.” Farlan pulled me closer to him.

     Eren’s eyes narrowed into slits. “You know what? I’m sure Jean wouldn’t mind going to the movies tonight. Count us in.”

     “Levi will tell you when we’re meeting,” Farlan said right before he took off.

     That bastard. What the hell was he up to?

     When me and Eren were alone, I shot him an apologetic look. “I’m sorry.”

     “Don’t apologize. This means I can feel you up in a movie theatre.”

     “Y-you’re not mad?” I sputtered.

     He shook his head. “Why should I be? Farlan doesn’t like me, so he’s looking out for you. I get it.” He leaned in close. As he spoke the next set of words into my ear, a tremble ran through my spine. “What he doesn’t realize is he’s going to be seeing a lot more of me.”

     I swallowed. “Why?”

     “Because I don’t plan on giving you up.” He slid his helmet on and jogged backwards toward the field. He flashed me a smile before he turned around and joined the other players.

     Well, I was in trouble.

     Deep, deep trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't look at me.
> 
> Yes, Eren's going to feel Levi up at the theatre. Do I mind? NOT ONE BIT. Let me live.
> 
> Thank you so much for the comments and kudos! I didn't expect anyone to like this tbh.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would feel bad for taking approximately 84 years to update this bad boy, but this is just a side project for me; not too important. Basically this is for fun, and whenever I get the itch to write happy, carefree boys, I sit my happy ass down at my computer and hammer out a chapter for this fic. ;)

As I sorted through a heap of clothing I’d dumped onto my bed, my cell phone rang in the otherwise silent room and startled a curse out of me. I ignored it, recognizing the ringtone I’d assigned to Farlan’s number. He could wait until I had an outfit picked out for tonight. Or at least that’s what I thought before he called six more times. Annoyed, I swiped up my phone from the nightstand and pressed it to my ear. “What do you want?” I answered in a tone that gave away my irritation. Good. What was so important that he had to call me six times in a row? You’d think someone was dying.

     “Change of plans,” he said, getting straight to the point. “Eren offered to give us a ride to the movie theatres. He should be at your place soon.”

     My mouth dropped open. “What the hell, Farlan! You gave him my address? I’m not even dressed yet. I haven’t even picked out an outfit!”

     “Are you being serious? The last time we went to go see a movie, you literally threw on a pair of sweats and topped it off with a hoodie.”

     “That’s because it was just me and you!” I hissed as I cradled the phone between my chin and shoulder, freeing my hands so I could rummage through my clothes. “This is Eren we’re talking about, Farlan. Eren! Have you forgotten how thirsty I am for this boy?”

     “Have you forgotten Eren’s straight?”

     I opened my mouth, ready to throw that comment back in his face, then I remembered that he couldn’t know Eren was gay. That left a bitter taste in the back of my mouth, but I said, “Whatever. That doesn’t mean I can’t look presentable.”

     “Well, you have about ten minutes to put together an outfit.”

     “Thanks for nothing. I’m hanging up on you now.” I ended the call with a grumble and chucked my phone on to my desk. Keeping this fling from Farlan would be harder than I thought. I chalked my near slip up to the fact that I _wanted_ to talk to him about all of this. Hell, he was my best friend, the one person I trusted with everything. If I wasn’t convinced he’d dismember Eren when he found out what his true intentions were with me, I’d swallow my pride and ask him for advice. Not that I believed Farlan would be happy enough with this new development to help me with anything. The only advice I could imagine him giving me was to put a stop to this relationship I had started with Eren.

     I stopped thinking about how Farlan would react and started sorting through my clothes again, putting aside some T-shirts that weren’t outright ugly. In the end, I settled for a white T-shirt and blue jeans, which was horribly plain, but I’d accepted long ago that I had no fashion sense whatsoever. It was better than sweats, at least.

     When the doorbell rang a few minutes later, I let out an impressive squeal that echoed back to me. I prayed that Eren didn’t hear it from the front porch. God, I needed to get a grip. What was I going to do next? Cry at the sight of him?

     “For fuck’s sake,” I murmured as I shoved my arms through the sleeves of my shirt.

     After I put on my jeans, I hurried to the front door and yanked it open. Eren immediately scanned me from head to foot. Heat rushed to my face the longer he stared at me, but he didn’t drop his gaze. Instead, he maintained eye contact as he reached out and slid his hand beneath my shirt, fingertips trailing up and over my hipbone before his palm settled on my side. I swallowed hard at the sensation of having his hand on my bare skin. How could something so simple feel this good? I wanted him to keep on touching me, everywhere; to leave no part of me unexplored.

     “Hi,” he said, donning an irresistible crooked smile that made me weak in the knees.

     “Hi.” I stepped sideways to ensure his hand stayed right where it was. Then I added, “I still need to put my shoes on, so you can come in for a bit.”

     He put his other hand on my side, then stepped inside, holding me in place so that our bodies met. He tilted his head down, lips caressing the side of my neck as he asked, “Were you in a hurry?”

     “What?” My mind couldn’t even process his words. It focused on better things, like the feel of his warm breath washing over my skin.

     Eren tugged on the front of my jeans. “Your fly is open.”

     The hazy glow I was in evaporated in the blink of an eye. Mortified, I sputtered out, “Oh, God, please erase this from your memory. You came when I was in the middle of getting dressed.”

     “These are nice. I don’t want to erase _these_ ” —he slid his finger across the waistband of my black boxer shorts— “from my memory.” He outright ogled my crotch. “They are form fitting, aren’t they? I can see everything.”

     “S-stop staring!”

     “Why? I like what I see.”

     I peeked up at him, feeling shy, and something about my expression made him groan like he was in pain. Then he kissed me, slow and deep and heavy, the hot touch of his tongue on mine drawing a moan from me that he drank up. He tasted like something sweet; smelled like something warm and enticing. I wanted him closer. Needed it. But he eased back and left me staring at him dumbly, drunk from his kiss.

     “You said I can come over after we’re done at the movies, right?” he asked, sounding just as wrecked as I felt. He started kissing my jaw, my neck, as though he couldn’t keep himself from touching me somehow.

     I nodded, unable to find my voice to respond to him any other way.

     “Good,” he said as he nipped his way back to my lips, “because I’m going crazy.”

     “ _You’re_ going crazy? I feel like I’m about to explode.”

     He ground his hips against mine. I gasped when I felt how hard he was. “You think I’m doing any better?”

     Did we even have to go to the movies? There was always the option of blowing Farlan and Jean off. It’s not like they needed us around to have a good time.

     Eren’s cell phone went off and we sprang apart at the sound. As he dug it out of his pocket, I took a deep breath in hopes of settling down. Jeez, even something as simple as looking at him made me want to tear off his clothes. How was I supposed to keep my hands to myself throughout an entire movie? Even though he told me he wanted to feel me up during it, there was no way for him to do that without Farlan or Jean seeing. And it would look suspicious if we sat somewhere by ourselves. It looked like we had no other choice but to control ourselves until tonight.

     “Could you be more over dramatic?” Eren said in a sharp tone, nabbing my attention. “I’m not going to bail out on tonight’s plans to hang out with Mikasa and Annie. Fuck that. When will you get it through your thick skull that I’m done with Annie? If you want to go hang out with them, be my guest. No one’s stopping you.” A pause, then, “Am I picking you up or not? Fine. I’ll see you in a little bit.” He ended the call and looked ready to launch his phone across the house.

     “Are you okay?” I asked.

     “I’d be better if Jean stopped trying to hook me back up with my ex. Or any girl, for that matter.”

     “Oh,” I said.

     He sighed. “We should go.”

     “Okay, let me just grab my shoes.” I fled to my room, trying to ignore the lump that had formed in my throat at the sight of Eren’s expression. I recognized that look of defeat. He hated that Jean continued to hassle him about Annie, but it was still a better option than telling him the truth. He wasn’t ready to let his best friend know about his sexuality. And I understood that better than anyone, because I could still remember the fear I’d felt when I first told Farlan I was gay.

     I took longer than necessary putting on my shoes. I wanted to give Eren enough time to calm down. It was only when he poked his head around my door that I realized my mistake.

     “That’s a lot of clothes you have on your bed,” he commented, stepping into my bedroom.

     I opened my mouth, didn’t know what to stay, then screeched, “You weren’t supposed to come in here.”

     “Is there something I’m not supposed to see?”

     I gestured to the pile of clothing. “This. I... couldn’t figure out what to wear.”

     “So, you dumped your entire closet on your bed?” He looked amused, and I could feel my soul withering away.

     “You know what? I’m just going to pray to some higher power that you don’t remember any of this by tomorrow.” I gathered up an armful of clothes and threw them over my computer chair. When I went for some more, Eren blocked my way.

     He said, “Were you nervous I wouldn’t like what you wore?”

     “Maybe.”

     “Are you kidding me? You could wear trash and I’d still think you look good.”

     “I think you’re due for an eye exam.”

     He curled his finger through one of my belt loops to pull me closer to him. “I see just fine.”

     Before I combusted into a million pieces, or malfunctioned, I took him by the hand and led him out of my room. He willingly followed me outside. When I reached his truck, he freed his hand so he could round the hood and open the passenger side door for me. I cursed him for being a gentleman on top of everything else. Was there any part of him that wasn’t downright irresistible? I swear if he turned out to be amazing in bed – despite being a virgin with no prior experience – I would file a lawsuit. I’d sue for pain and suffering, because he could not bathe me in his perfection and _not_ be my boyfriend.

     I hopped into the passenger seat, a little too aware of Eren behind me. He was so close. I tried to buckle myself in without making my nervousness obvious, but the seatbelt wouldn’t cooperate with me. “Fuck,” I muttered under my breath.

     Eren, who hadn’t moved an inch since he’d opened the door, chuckled. “Having trouble?”

     “If you would just give me some room, I wouldn’t be having this problem.”

     “Do I make you that nervous?” He leaned in close, dipping his head so it was practically in my lap.

     That did not help this situation any. All it did was make my imagination run wild.

     I reached down with the intention of pushing his head away, but then my fingers slid into his soft hair, and I forgot all about the seatbelt. He leaned into my touch with a small, content smile. I melted. “You’re too much,” I said, “and yeah, you kind of do make me that nervous.”

     His eyes drifted close as I kept running my fingers through his hair. “You make me nervous, too, but in a good way.”

     “A good way?”

     “Yeah,” he said. “Like giving me butterflies, or making me lose sleep because I know I’m going to be with you the next day.”

     “Or making you get up early to clean your truck, because you noticed how neat my locker is.”

     He smiled. “Exactly.”

     Why did it sound like Eren had a crush on me? That couldn’t be it. I was reading way too much into this. He probably felt this way because I was the first guy he did these kinds of things with. Once everything was said and done, he’d move on to another guy.

     Fuck, how depressing. I just killed my own happy mood.

     I tapped his nose, smiling when he scrunched it. “Let’s get going before Jean calls you again.”

     “Good idea.”

     He stood up, then shut the door. I watched as he made his way over to the driver’s side, and mentally prepared myself for him to get back into the truck. No matter how much time I spent with him, I couldn’t get used to it. For so long he seemed out of reach, unattainable, and now he was sliding into the driver’s seat and putting his hand on my thigh—a little too high up to be considered chaste.

     _Lord!_

I liked the heavy weight of his hand on my thigh; liked the warmth of his palm. Possessed by an idea that erased all rational thoughts, I put my hand over his and moved it up until it was nestled in the juncture of my thigh and groin. I couldn’t breathe, or move, afraid I’d gone too far. Then Eren shifted his hand so that it was resting on my crotch, and I felt my soul ascending to heaven on gold tipped wings.

     “I never saw yours,” he commented.

     “Excuse me?” I squeaked.

     He groped me, grinning when I made a choked sound. “I never saw your dick.”

     “Oh.” My eyes widened when he slid down my zipper. “Wait, hold on. You want to see it now? You’re driving!”

     “So. I’ve mastered the art of driving with one hand.”

     I had all of two seconds to come to terms with what was about to happen before he pulled my boxers down low enough to reveal my dick. Time seemed to stop as he stared at it, not even paying attention to the road ahead.

     “You’re going to crash, Eren,” I said, horrified.

     Without responding, he made a sharp left turn into a vacant retail store’s parking lot and drove around back. He stopped next to a semi that was in front of a loading dock. I looked around – considering my dick was out for the entire world to see – but couldn’t spot anyone. Hopefully it stayed that way.

     Eren put the truck in park. “God, get over here,” he demanded in a gruff voice.

     I looked at him, saw the hungry expression on his face, and all but leaped across the center console in my hurry. The second I straddled his lap, he put his hands on my waist and urged me up onto my knees. My boxers were still shoved down over my hips, so his face was inches away from the tip of my erection. I bit down on my bottom lip, waiting for him do something. Anything. I was already so turned on, I was leaking pre-come, the clear fluid running down the front of my cock.

     “Eren?” I said when he just sat there staring at it. Arousal started to turn to embarrassment the longer he stayed quiet. What if he didn’t like what he saw?

     He finally glanced up at me, but then returned his gaze to where it was before. “I want to eat it.”

     “Huh?” My entire face burned up in a millisecond.

     “I’ve seen other guys’ dicks, but never had this type of reaction. I just...” He leaned in and kissed the tip, open mouthed. My hips bucked. “I can’t—I _need_ to do something.”

     “But the movies,” I said, even when I couldn’t care less about it. I wanted his mouth back on me, anywhere, everywhere.

     “Fuck the movies. Here, sit down.”

     I sat down. In my rush, my back slammed against the horn. The loud honk startled both of us. We stilled, waited, but when no one showed up to see what was going on back here, we carried on with what we were doing.

     Eren worked his belt buckle open with hurried movements. When I saw what he was getting at, I helped him along, undoing his button before dragging the zipper down. And I had no hopes of suppressing the groan that poured out of me when he slid his cock out and it rubbed against mine, slick with pre-come. We paused for a moment to gather ourselves, then he wrapped his hand around the both of us. The sensation sent a shock through my whole body. Shaking, panting, I clung onto his shoulders for support.

     “F-feels good,” I said.

     His only response to that was to pump his hand. I arched into it, thrusting my dick against his, lost to the feel of his skin sliding over mine. He repeated the movement until he set a pace that had us both shaking.

     “Eren, Eren,” I moaned, voice cracking, sweat trickling down my neck and following the path my collarbone made.    

     “Shit... Levi...” He grabbed onto my hip with his free hand, eyes pinching shut and fingers digging into my skin with enough pressure to bruise. But I wanted him to hold me tighter. I wanted him to leave behind marks that would remind me of this moment.

     When his grip tightened around us, rhythm growing frantic, I leaned forward and kissed him, relishing the taste of him. I moaned into his mouth as the head of his cock – so hot and wet – skimmed across mine. Then he swiped his thumb over my tip, and my vision blanked out as I came, hips jerking back and forth as he continued to stroke us. I shook from the aftershocks, an endless moan seeping out of me that turned hoarse when he reached his peak. All my brain could register was his come spattering on my stomach; his groan dropping in pitch as he rode out his orgasm. Everything else was a blur.

     My senses came back slowly, the interior of the truck coming into focus. For a while, we didn’t say anything to break the silence, then he leaned back and our gazes clashed.

     I shifted on his lap, nervous now that everything was over. “We made a mess.”

     “Mm,” he hummed in agreement, nuzzling my neck, which caught me off guard. I hadn’t expected him to be the cuddly type. At least not with someone he was having a fling with, but I didn’t mind whatsoever.

     “What are we going to do? We’re already running late. I don’t think we can get away with going home to change.”

     “Don’t worry. My gym bag is in the back. I have a jacket I can throw on, and a button down you can wear over your shirt.” He smacked the side of my thigh, shooting me a wicked little grin. “Or you can wear the jacket, and I can wear the shirt. Whatever works for you.”

     “We’re going to be walking around the movies with...come on our shirts?”  
     His grin turned into a full-fledged smile. “No one will see it.”

     “You are...” I trailed off.

     “A bad influence?” he offered.

     “Yes, but I like it.” I looked down and arched a brow. “How are we going to clean up?”

     He reached back and grabbed his gym bag. He dug around in it until he produced basketball shorts. “Not the best thing to use, but we don’t have much of a choice.”

     “You’re right about that.”

     While he wiped at my stomach, his cell phone rang in his pocket. I recognized Jean’s ringtone. I would have worried, but all Eren did was smile, like he was happy with our secret. Seeing his reaction, I couldn’t help but smile too.

 

\---

 

Farlan hadn’t stopped looking at me since he climbed into the truck. I tried to play it cool, but whenever his eyes roamed over me, my cheeks burned. Of course he’d notice I was wearing one of Eren’s jackets. I never in my life owned a camo bomber jacket. Top that off with our tardiness, and I all but watered the seed of doubt that’d been planted the second he saw me strolling onto the football field earlier today. How could I explain this to him without giving away what happened? Did I even need to explain?

     “Levi,” Farlan said.

     I jumped up, startled. “Y-yes?”

     Wow, I might as well confess right now with how guilty I was acting. I needed to pull it together.

     He asked, “What movie do you want to watch?”

     “I thought you wanted to see that action film that just came out?”

     He shrugged. “You’re not really into that kind of movie. How about we watch _Me Before You_? You like those cheesy chick flicks.”

     I stared at Farlan so hard, it was a wonder his head didn’t explode. Why would he reveal that in front of two people who never needed to know I had a soft spot for chick flicks? That was top secret information! Even if he suspected something was going on between Eren and me, he wasn’t one hundred percent sure. Yet he’d dropped that bomb in hopes of getting a reaction out of Eren, who would never agree to watch a chick flick unless he liked me on some level.

     “I don’t want to see that,” I said in a rush.

     “Come on, it’s okay. If Jean and Eren don’t want to see it, they can go watch something else.”

     Jean elbowed Eren over the center console. “We’re ditching them.”

     “We’re ditching you,” Farlan shot back.

     If Eren weren’t driving forty-five miles per hour, I would consider hurling myself out of this truck. Hell, I might do it anyway.

     “If you guys can’t agree on a movie,” Eren said, “then we’ll go somewhere else.”

     “Like where?” Jean asked.

     “Titans.”

     “That amusement center that Connie works at? What are we, five?”

     “If you’re going to argue like five year olds, then I’ll treat you like five year olds.”

     I laughed. Farlan glared at me. Jean glared at Eren, who had the biggest shit-eating grin on his face.

     “Fuck you,” Jean said. “Go to Titans. I’ll stomp your ass at go-karts.”

     Eren grinned. “We’ll see about that.”

            I had a feeling this would be a crazy night I wouldn’t be forgetting anytime soon.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, as you can see, I completely bypassed the movies. I imagined Eren and Jean racing go-karts, and I just couldn't pass that up. Who could? Let the boys have fun. Let Eren and Levi play ski ball, and have one of them cheat by crawling up and putting the ball in the 100 hole. I mean, why else write a self-indulgent fic?
> 
> Anywho, thank you for the kudos and comments. I gobble them up.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wish I could promise faster updates, but I'm in the process of buying a new house and it has been hell. Cleaning and packing has legit taken up all my free time, but aghjkli once I settle in, I hope to update this faster and put another fic out (because it seems I'll never get tired of ereri ffs). 
> 
> BUT, I do hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Thank you to those who leave me comments. You guys are the only reason I bother with this fic anymore tbfh.

By the time Eren parked in front of Titans, Farlan’s mood had improved. He even flashed me a smile as we climbed out of the truck. I was relieved to see it. I thought for sure he’d be a grumpy ass for the rest of the night, considering he’d given me the stink eye whenever he gazed at the jacket I wore.

     “I can’t believe you actually brought us here,” Jean said as we walked to the front entrance, throwing his arm around Eren’s shoulders to give him a hearty shake. “Where should we go first? Go-karts? Laser tag? The possibilities are endless.”

     Eren glanced at me over his shoulder. “Why don’t you decide, Levi?”  

     “Me?” I pointed at myself to be sure, which made him bite down on his bottom lip to hide an adorable smile.

     “Yeah, you. After all, this whole night was planned because Farlan wanted me to get to know you better.”

     Farlan rolled his eyes. “I planned to watch a movie, not come to some cheap amusement center that have restrooms that reek of piss.”

     “Lighten up already,” Jean said. “Take that stick you have shoved up your ass out. I promise you’ll feel better.”

     I decided to put an end to their conversation before it could get heated. “We can go to the arcade,” I suggested.

     “The arcade it is.”

     Eren pulled open the front door for us and made a sweeping motion with his arm. Jean and Farlan disappeared inside first. I followed close behind. As the three of us wandered into a dim room, the smell of buttered popcorn strong in the air, I suddenly felt Eren’s hands on either side of my waist. My eyes popped open in surprise. I hadn’t expected him to try anything with our friends so close. Granted, we were in a dark room, but still. One of them could turn around at any moment and see his fingers sliding under the front of my shirt, teasing up goose bumps wherever they touched.

     When his hands moved lower, I whimpered from the sensation, unable to control my reaction. My skin tingled. My stomach clenched.

     “You’re so sensitive,” Eren whispered in my ear, pressing his front to my back. Every part of him was warm and solid. “I love it.”

     “W-we shouldn’t be doing this here.”

     “You’re right.”

     So he said, but he didn’t release me. His hands continued down the path of my stomach until his fingers dipped beneath the waistband of my jeans. My entire body went taut. I couldn’t believe he was doing this in a public place. Anyone could see us. Maybe someone already had. And yet, I didn’t want him to stop. I wanted him to keep on touching me. I wanted him to mark every inch of me with scratches and love bites, so if anyone looked, they’d know it was me he wanted; that it was me who made him lose control.         

     “Hey, Eren!” Jean called without looking back (a miracle), and just like that, the moment ended. Eren moved away. “Chip in for some tokens.”

     “Yeah, yeah,” Eren said. He came to stand beside me and added, in a low voice that only I could hear, “This is harder than I thought.”

     “What is?”

     “Keeping my hands to myself.”

     I swallowed, then cleared my throat, but when I spoke again, my voice still came out sounding uneven and scratchy. “We could always sneak off later.”

     Eren’s eyes, brilliant even in this lighting, focused on my face. “Don’t say that unless you mean it.”

     “I mean it,” I confirmed.

     “Fuck.”

     That’s the only response he gave me.

     We joined the others at the front counter, where Jean collected money from each of us. When we all forked over ten bucks, he bought tokens and split them evenly between the four of us. I put my share in an empty plastic cup one of the employees offered me. Eren and Farlan did the same with theirs, but Jean happily shoved his tokens into his pockets. Then we set off toward the arcade.

     It was filled with people around our age, their teeth shining under the black lights that made the neon carpet glow.

     “That one,” Jean said out of the blue, pointing at a Mortal Kombat game that was unoccupied. He grinned at Farlan. “Think you can beat me?”

     “Did you really just challenge me at a fighting game?”

     “Yeah, I did. Gonna do something about it?”

     Farlan smiled. “I’m going to beat you, that’s what I’m going to do.”

     “Prove it, asshole.”

     As they took their places, Eren motioned for me to follow him. I did so without question. That is, until he led me up a flight of stairs. At the top, there was a sign that said only employees could go passed this point.

     “Eren?” I said, looking at him. He was smiling.

     “Come on. We won’t get caught.” He climbed over the pathetic chain that was supposed to keep people out, gripping onto my hand so I wouldn’t turn around and bolt. Not that I planned to go anywhere without him. I’d break any rules so long as he kept holding my hand.

     We entered a large room that could be reserved for birthday parties. There were rows of tables lined up against the east wall, and beyond that, another smaller arcade for party guests only. That’s where Eren took me. He walked passed most of them, seeming uninterested in the selection of games, but then he stopped in front of a claw machine filled with various stuffed animals. He fished out two quarters from his pocket and put them in.

     “You want me to win that fluffy unicorn for you?” I said, pointing to said unicorn with a smirk. “Or, are you planning to win me something?”

     He took my cup of tokens from me and set it on the ground between my feet. “How about we make a bet?” He came to stand behind me as he spoke, wrapping his arms around my waist before he continued. “If you win something, I’ll do exactly what you tell me to do tonight.”

     “You’ll do anything I ask?” I tilted my head back on his shoulder. “What if I asked you to give me a hand job right here right now?”

     Without warning, he slipped his hand down the front of my pants and grabbed the base of my dick. I yelped in surprise.

     “I’ll do anything.”

     I swallowed. His palm was so warm. “Jesus.” I swatted at his arm. “Take your hand out, or I won’t be able to concentrate.”

     “Are you sure you want me to take it out?” He stroked me, slow, and I could feel myself growing hard. “You seem to like it.”

     “I never said I didn’t”—he stroked me again—“mm like it. I said I wouldn’t be able to concentrate.”

     “Try.”

     I grabbed the joystick and moved it to the right. The claw jerked to life, swinging from side to side as it sailed over toys. I tried to focus my attention on one of the stuffed animals long enough to position the claw over it, but Eren was pumping his hand faster now, and steering my thoughts in a different direction. Unconsciously, I started to jerk my hips forward. He rewarded my efforts by tightening his grip. God, I was going to lose my mind. Part of me couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that we were doing this in public – even if we were in a secluded spot – the other part didn’t give one fuck. I loved every second he was touching me. It still felt so unreal. I wanted to soak it all in while I had the chance to.

     “You’re running out of time,” Eren said.

     I pushed the button on the top of the joystick without looking at where the claw was. It descended, claws opening wide, and completely missed anything and everything.

     “Guess I lost,” I murmured as it closed on air.

     “I guess you did.” He slipped his hand out of my boxers, but only to shove them down over my hips. I stood there, shaky, unbelievably hard, and waited for him to do whatever he wanted to me.

     I heard him unzip his jeans, then, slowly, I felt his cock slide between my thighs. At that point, I was convinced I’d died and gone to heaven. There was no other explanation for this dream-like day.

     “Close your legs,” Eren said, an authoritative edge to his voice that made me comply instantly. My thighs closed around his dick and he groaned. “You don’t even realize the things you do to me.” He started thrusting his hips. “I can’t control myself when I’m around you. I want to touch you all the time.”

     “You can touch me whenever you want to.”

     He slid his hand down the front of my pants. “Even at school?”

     “Y-yes.” I hissed in a breath, crumpling forward when he closed his hand around me again. “Wherever.”

     Eren placed his other hand beneath my chin and tipped my head back far enough for him to sink his tongue into my mouth. I moaned as he kissed me with insistence, with command, making me weak with desire. All the while, I pushed myself into his hand, over and over, feeling him there between my thighs that were sticky with pre-come.

     His lips broke away from mine, but he kept his mouth on me, moving it along the side of my neck in heated kisses until he reached the crook of my shoulder. His lips parted then, tongue flicking out to press hot against my skin while he sucked up a bruising mark. My cock twitched in his hand. I was close, too aroused to hold off for much longer. Everywhere he touched felt hyper-sensitive, nerve endings crackling to life under his fingertips.

     “Eren,” I said, the sound dissolving into a moan when my mouth dropped open. He brushed his thumb over the head again, and I jerked, stomach curling inward. “I’m gonna come,” I choked out, eyes squeezing shut. “Gonna come.”

     He licked my ear, slow and hot. My entire body tensed.

     “Me too,” he breathed.

     His fingers slid into my mouth and pressed down on my tongue. I groaned around them, losing myself in the rhythm of his strokes; in the feel of his member gliding without pause between my thighs. When my orgasm washed over me, I bit down on his fingers from the intensity of it. My hips rolled forward into his hand, relentless, drawing out the pleasure, and I felt his cock jerk in response, hot come sliding down my legs as he found his release.

     We were both so fucked out that we didn’t hear the voices until the people responsible for them were almost to us.

     “Oh, my god,” I hissed under my breath. “Someone’s coming.”

     Without waiting for me to pull up my jeans, Eren wrapped his arms around my waist and carried me in the opposite direction of where the voices were coming from. I had no idea where he planned to hide. We couldn’t go far. Both of us were indecent.

     “There’s a restroom up ahead,” Eren said. “I saw it on our way in.”

     I spotted it. “Are we going to lock ourselves inside?”

     “Yeah, unless you want to get caught and thrown out.”

     “Hell no. Lock us in.”

     We crept into the restroom and he shut the door behind us, making sure to lock it. I waddled to the nearest sink the second my feet hit the ground. My jeans were still around my ankles, so my movements were awkward. As he pressed his ear against the door, listening for anyone on the other side, I wiped my thighs clean. That’s when it hit me – really hit me – what we had just done. For some reason, it struck me as funny and I started to laugh.

     “They’ll hear you,” he said, not sounding the least bit concerned about it. In fact, he turned around and smiled at me.

     I put my hands over my mouth to muffle my laughter. “I’m sorry.”

     “What’s funny, anyway?”

     “You really have to ask? I never thought you’d be like this. I mean, how many times do you plan on making me come today?”

     “As many times as you’ll let me,” he said.

     I shivered. “God, I must have saved a king in my past life or something.”

     “And what? I’m your reward in this life?”

     “Yes,” I said, serious.

     Now it was his turn to laugh. “I must have saved a king too, then, if I get to have you.”

     I would have hollered if I didn’t hear footsteps at that exact moment. I pressed my index finger to my lips, but Eren only smiled like I were challenging him to laugh louder.

     “I swear to god,” I muttered.

     The smile grew wider. “You might want to pull your pants up. We’re going to be running soon.”

     “What? What are you planning to do?”

     He gestured to my pants. “Hurry.”

     “Fuck. Okay.” I bent down, grabbed the waistband of my jeans, and yanked it up. By the time I zipped my fly, Eren had thrown the door open. We stood there looking at each other for all of two seconds before we ran out. Somewhere along the way, he grabbed my hand and we just about tumbled down the stairs, which sent us into another fit of laughter. I heard our pursuers curse when they realized we were on the move. “Where are we going?” I asked once we reached the first floor. My heart was pounding a mile a minute. I’d never done anything like this before.

     “There.” He pointed to a photo booth. “Come on. They won’t look in there.”

     I wasn’t so sure about that, but I stepped inside and sat down on the seat as he pulled the curtain shut. “Now what?”

     “Now we wait,” he said, sitting next to me. He pulled his wallet out of his back pocket. “Should we take pictures while we wait?”

     I looked at him through narrowed eyes. “You’re not even worried, are you?”

     “Why should I be? Tonight’s been great.”

     “Are you always like this?”

     “Doing things without thinking them through? Yeah, all the time.”

     “No.” I dropped my gaze, shy. “I meant... Have you been like this with anyone else?”

     Eren scooped me up like I weighed nothing, and sat me on his lap. “Last time I checked, you were the first person I touched, and the first person I’ve let touch me.”

     “Seriously?”

     “Why is that so hard for you to believe?”

     I shrugged. “I don’t know. You’re just so gorgeous. It’s hard to believe that no one has tried—”

     “Oh, people have tried,” he interrupted. “But just because they’ve tried, doesn’t mean I’ve let them get anywhere with me.”

     I stared at him. I couldn’t think of a single thing to say. For the past five years, I’d watched him from afar and built up this ideal version of him in my mind because I was too shy to get to know the real him. But the boy I’d created in my head didn’t match the Eren I believed he was, or the Eren he turned out to be. No, the Eren from my imagination didn’t stand a chance against the boy looking back at me with eyes as intense as wildfire.

     “I like you,” I blurted out.

     He laughed, reaching out to tuck a lock of hair behind my ear. “I like you, too.” He opened his wallet and slid out two dollar bills. “Now, let’s take some pictures.”

 

\---

 

Farlan was not amused with our disappearing act. Neither was Jean. When we met up with them by the go-karts – _after_ they called us dozens of times – they both looked seconds away from slapping the souls out of our bodies. Farlan’s twisted expression almost made me burst out laughing. He looked constipated.

     “We haven’t been gone that long,” Eren said.

     Farlan eyed him like he’d just claimed the earth was flat. “Are you kidding me? You guys have been gone for over an hour, and you haven’t been answering our texts, either. Where the hell were you guys? We looked everywhere.”

     Eren gave me a sideways glance at the same time I gave him one. We both shrugged.

     “Fuck the both of you,” Jean said, flipping us off to add to the effect. “This place closes in twenty minutes and we haven’t done squat.”

     “Oh, come on. There’s still time to ride the go-karts.”    

     “That’s right. There’s still time for that.” Jean held out his hand. “Money,” he demanded.

     With a roll of his eyes, Eren took his wallet out and handed him a twenty-dollar bill. Jean opened his mouth, no doubt to make some idiotic remark, but then his eyes darted to the left. A wide smile spread across his face.

     “God is on my side,” he said, slamming his hands down on Eren’s shoulders to turn him around. Farlan and I did the same. There was a group of girls standing outside the front entrance, huddled together and laughing. My eyes locked onto a head of blonde hair.

     Annie.

     Eren must have seen her, too, because he said, “Oh, fuck no.”

     “I’m going over there.” Jean ran his fingers through his hair, which made it stick up at an odd angle. “How do I look? Mikasa’s over there.”

     “You fucked up your hair,” Farlan told him.

     Jean smoothed it out as best he could before he ran across the street to greet the group of girls. I couldn’t help but notice how Annie focused her attention on Eren the instant she was aware of his presence. I wanted to do something to let her know he wasn’t interested in her anymore, but who was I kidding? He’d never let me hold his hand in front of everyone. The only time he would let me touch him in any way is when he knew no one was around to see it. I was his dirty little secret—nothing more, nothing less.

     After several minutes passed by, Jean came back over with the lot of girls. I desperately wanted to leave. If we hadn’t come in Eren’s truck, I would have fled with Farlan and never looked back.

     “Guess we’re going to need more than a twenty,” Jean said as he threw his arm around Mikasa’s shoulders.

     “Guess you better bust out your wallet,” Eren shot back.

     “Fine, whatever.”

     We all gathered in front of the ticket booth. Jean paid for us, just dumping the money on the counter, and then we were admitted into the gated area where the go-karts were kept. There were one-seaters and two-seaters available. I headed toward a one-seater, feeling down, but then someone put their hand on the small of my back and guided me toward a two-seater kart. I glanced up and smiled like a total moron when I saw Eren behind me.

     “Want to drive?” he asked.

     I shook my head. “You go ahead.”          

     He waited for me to climb inside, then he slid behind the wheel. I was a little too happy with this outcome. I couldn’t even buckle myself in. I was glad one of the employees was droning on about the rules. That gave me plenty of time to fumble around with the belt.

     “Unbelievable,” I said. “Apparently, seatbelts don’t like me.”

     Eren took over and buckled me in. The smile on his face could resurrect the dead. “Still nervous?”

     “No. Just happy. I thought Jean would get you in a kart with Annie.”

     “He didn’t even try. That’s probably because he’s too busy wooing Mikasa. Or trying to, anyway.”

     “I had no idea he liked her.”

     “Since the first day he saw her. She considers him a friend, but nothing more than that. I think she’d an idiot for not giving him a chance.”

     “Really?” I asked.

     “Yeah. Jean acts like an ass, but he’s really not. He would treat her right.”

     I turned in my seat and spotted Jean sitting in a two-seater with Mikasa. He looked nervous as hell. What happened to all the bravado he had a minute ago?

     I went to turn back around, but then I noticed Farlan in a two-seater with none other than Isabel. My heart rate spiked. Since when did she hang out with Mikasa and Annie? I hadn’t even noticed her.

     “Shit,” I muttered.

     “What?”

     “The girl sitting with Farlan is my co-worker. The nosy one I told you about.”

     Eren turned around. “Isabel?”

     “Yeah. Do you know her?”

     “Not really. I wouldn’t worry about her, though. She doesn’t seem interested in what we’re doing.”

     There was no time to ask him what he meant by that, because the employee signaled for us to start moving forward, which Eren did right away. He seemed determined to get in front of everyone. As he passed Annie, I smiled. I felt giddy, elated. Tonight had gone better than expected, and there was still so much night left.

     I suddenly noticed that Eren’s eyes weren’t on the track. He was looking at me very seriously. Something about his expression made butterflies erupt in my stomach. I’d never seen him look at anyone the way he was looking at me right now.

     “What?” I asked, sounding nervous and unsure. “Is there something on my face?”

     “No.” He looked ahead, but put his hand over mine. He interlaced our fingers. “You’re just really beautiful when you smile.”

     I squeezed his hand and forgot about everything else. It was just me and him, here, in this perfect moment that no one could ruin.

      


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, let me just drop this here after a good, long while.  
> I'm sorry it's taken so long to get back to this, but hey, good news, I'm finally settled in my new house and I should be able to get on a proper updating schedule now. So there's that. Anywho, enjoy! :)  
> P.S. Comments are needed in order to keep the thirst alive. Quench my thirst, guys. Please and thank you!

“Are you still moping around?” Farlan asked as he dropped his food tray onto the lunch table, like the cafeteria wasn’t noisy enough already. Ugh, I hated eating in here.  

     I lifted my head from my folded arms and fixed him with an icy stare. That question wasn’t even worth answering. Of course, I was still moping around. How could I not be? Saturday night—the night I was supposed to lose (willingly give!) my virginity to Eren God-sent Jaeger—had been a total bust thanks to his dad, who decided to call him while we were riding the go-karts. He’d left a lengthy voicemail demanding him to come straight home. So, instead of experiencing bliss that night, I ended up eating too much Chinese take-out and staring at my ceiling until I fell asleep.

     _Woe is most definitely me!_

“Don’t talk to me,” I said.

     Farlan snorted, unfazed. “Stop being so over dramatic. What else were you expecting to do that night?”

     “I don’t know. I just wanted to spend more time with him.”

     “Listen, I don’t want to pour salt on the wound, but you shouldn’t get your hopes up. I thought we established that Eren doesn’t swing that way?” He narrowed his eyes and pointed his spork at me in an accusing manner. “Unless there’s something you’re not telling me. You guys did disappear for a good part of the night. What were you doing?”

     “Get your head out of the gutter. We found an arcade upstairs and lost track of time while we played some games. That’s it. End of story.” Wow, that lie came out smoothly. My voice didn’t even wobble.

     Even so, the look of suspicion remained on his face as he said, “Whatever you say.” He dug into his taco salad without another word, which reminded me I hadn’t bothered to grab myself food. Everything served at this school sucked anyway. I wasn’t missing much. Still, that didn’t stop my stomach from rumbling.

     I groaned.

     “You didn’t buy yourself lunch?” Farlan asked.

     “I had other things on my mind.”

     “You’re hopeless when it comes to Eren, you know that?” He held out his hand. “Here, give me some money. I’ll go and grab you something.”

     “Have I ever told you that you’re the best friend anyone could ever ask for?” I slid my wallet out of my back pocket and produced a ten-dollar bill. When I handed it to him, I said, “You’re out here doing the Lord’s work.”

     He looked at me long and hard. “You really need to stop spending so much time on Tumblr.”

     “You’re right. Now go.”

     When he turned around and disappeared behind a group of students, I laid my head back down on the table. My thoughts drifted to Eren. I hadn’t spoken to him since Saturday, even when I had plenty of chances to text him between Sunday and now. But, in the end, I always talked myself out of it. Part of me was still uncertain about where we stood. Could I even text him without coming off too needy? Jeez, why did I keep making this odd relationship of ours more complicated than it already was? When would I stop overthinking everything?

     Fucking hell. Flings needed to come with a How-To Book.

     Frustrated, I threw the hoodie of my jacket over my head to drown out the constant chatter coming from the people sitting around me. Next period was gym class. If I didn’t want to drive myself insane by the end of the week, I needed to talk to Eren about setting some ground rules. That way we could draw a clear line between what was okay, and not okay to do.

     While I thought this over, someone tapped me on the top of the head. I assumed it was Farlan announcing his return, so I acknowledged him with a grunt.

     He tapped me again. Then again.

     “You’re annoying, you know that?” I flung my head back, only to see that it wasn’t Farlan standing beside the table. It was Eren, looking incredibly scrumptious in a black T-shirt and ripped jeans. My heart stopped. “I thought you were Farlan,” I explained in a rush, making an inhuman sound when he took the seat next to mine. “What are you doing? You do realize everyone can see you sitting here with me? And Farlan will be back any minute.”

     “So?”        

     “So?” I roared. “He already suspects that there’s something going on between us. I thought you wanted to keep this a secret between us? You haven’t exactly been inconspicuous.”

     “I’m being inconspicuous right now. I’m just sitting next to you. It’s not like we’re making out.”

     I stared at him in disbelief. Did he really not get it? Sitting next to me in the cafeteria was not inconspicuous when you were the quarterback of the football team. Everyone at this school knew who he was thanks to that, which meant they knew I wasn’t a part of his clique. All it’d take to expose him was one curious person that decided to snoop around—they’d see plenty if they stuck around long enough—and I didn’t want that to happen. I wanted Eren to come out on his own terms.

     He must’ve taken my silence as a bad thing, because he asked, in a serious tone, “Do you want me to go?”

     “What? No. That’s not what I’m saying here. I just don’t want the wrong people to catch wind of us, is all.”

     He grinned. It was lopsided and cute. “So, you don’t want me to leave?”

     “Is that all you got out of that?”

     “Yes, because I’m glad. I spent Sunday wishing I had my phone so I could text you.”

     “Why didn’t you have your phone? Does this have something to do with your dad calling you on Saturday?”

     “Yep,” he said, calm as ever. “I was grounded, but went out with you guys anyway, so he took my phone. I barely got it back this morning.”

     Realization hit me hard and I blurted out, “So you really couldn’t text me!”

     “Not unless I broke into my dad’s study. Why? Thought I wasn’t interested in texting you?”

     “I don’t know what I thought. This is all confusing.”

     “What’s confusing about it?” he asked. “I like you. You like me. Of course I wanted to text you.”

     “I wish it were that simple, but whatever is happening between us is temporary. You don’t plan on going anywhere with it, right? It’s purely sexual, so I never know if I’m crossing any boundaries you might have set.” I squeezed my eyes shut and rubbed at my forehead. Why was this so difficult to explain? “I’m sorry. I’m probably getting annoying. It’s just—I’ve never done anything like this before, and I don’t want to get too attached to you. I think it’d be better for the both of us if we didn’t treat this like a normal relationship.”

     For a long time Eren stayed quiet. Then, in a small voice, he said, “Oh.” He stood up straight after. “I guess I shouldn’t sit with you at lunch, then. I’m gonna go. See you in gym class.”

     “Eren, wait...” I tried to catch him by the arm, but he stepped out of reach and turned around. Then he walked out of the cafeteria without looking back.

     My stomach dropped.

     What had I just done?

     “What’s wrong?” Farlan appeared with a bagel and a small plastic container of cream cheese. He set both down in front of me. “You look like someone just sucker punched you in the stomach.”

     That’s what it felt like too.

     I shook my head, unable to speak passed the lump that had formed in my throat.

     “Levi, seriously, are you okay?”

     I wanted to tell him everything was fine, but tears were forming in my eyes and there was no way I could lie while crying. “Ugh, this isn’t happening,” I said, wiping at my eyes with the sleeves of my jacket. I couldn’t remember the last time I cried in front of people. “I think I just royally fucked up.”

     “What are you talking about? What did you fuck up?” Farlan looked around, like he’d be able to spot the problem that way. “Will you tell me what’s going on?”

     “If I tell you, you promise not to freak out? I mean it, Farlan. You better stay calm.”

     He looked wary and unsure, but said, “I promise.”

     After that, I told him all about what had happened between me and Eren. I left nothing out. I just hoped I wasn’t making a mistake.

 

\---

 

I entered the boys’ locker room with newfound determination. The talk I had with Farlan at lunch convinced me Eren wanted more than just a fling with me. My self-doubt had prevented me from seeing that before, but now I understood the reason Eren was hesitant to get into a relationship. It wasn’t because he didn’t want one. It was because he was afraid of how that would change everything about who he thought he was. Being in a committed relationship with a guy would force him to rearrange his self-image, and come to terms with that change. Although he wasn’t completely ready for that, he was ready for a boyfriend—even if that boyfriend had to stay a secret for a while.

     I rounded the corner and walked down a crowded aisle to get to my locker. I noticed right away that Eren wasn’t here yet. Relieved to have a few more minutes to gather myself, I opened my locker, but the feeling didn’t last, because he showed up a moment later and didn’t even spare me a passing glance as he greeted his friends on the way to his locker. I stared at him, hoping we’d make eye contact, but he refused to look in my direction. He made quick work of undoing his lock, and then started to undress. Just like that. Like I wasn’t there at all.

     With my heart in my throat, I slipped my backpack off and shoved it into my locker. I started shaking, all the determination and confidence I felt a moment ago draining out of me in the blink of an eye. Sweat prickled on my forehead and my knees went weak. Fuck. I couldn’t cry in front of everyone. Not again. I needed to get out of here.

     I gathered my gym clothes and hurried to the showers. I didn’t stop until I was locked inside a stall. Then I slumped down on the floor and brought my knees up to my chest, resting my head on top of them as I focused on regulating my breathing.  

     I don’t know how long I’d been sitting there when someone knocked on the stall door. My head snapped up at the sound. “I’ll be out in a minute,” I said in a huff.

     “Levi, it’s me. Unlock the door.”

     Eren.

     Dammit, I wasn’t ready to hear anything he had to say.

     “Levi?”

     “Hold on,” I said.

     I stood and took several deep breaths in a futile attempt to calm down. I had a sinking feeling that the conversation we were about to have would make or break us, but if I wanted to get to the bottom of this, I needed to see this through, so I opened the stall door.

     The first thing Eren did was step up to me and put his hands on my shoulders. His gaze intensified with traces of worry as he scanned me from head to foot.

     “Are you feeling okay? You just rushed out of the locker room.” He pressed the back of his hand to my forehead. “You feel a little warm. Wait, are you crying?”

     “I’m fine. Really. I mean, I feel a bit nauseated, but it’s—”

     “What? Why? Did you eat something weird for lunch?”

     “I ate a bagel.” I shook my head, confused. “Hold on. Why are you asking me all this? I thought you came here because of what I said earlier.”

     He dropped his hands and took a step back. “What is there to say about that? You made things pretty clear.”

     “No, I didn’t.”

     “Yeah, you did. You want me to keep my distance.”

     “That’s not what I want at all. The reason I said that is because I don’t know what _you_ want. When you first approached me, you made it seem like all you were interested in was a relationship with no strings attached, but the way you acted contradicted that. You kept wanting to see me and spend time with me, so I got really confused.” I met his gaze. “I like you, Eren. A lot. And the more time I spend with you, the more I realize that a fling just isn’t enough. But I’m not sure if you’re ready to take it—”

     “I’m ready.”

     I gaped at him, shocked. Did he just say that? Was I hearing things?

     “Really?” I asked, eyes wide.

     “Yeah. I want to do more with you than just get you off. Although that’s pretty nice too.”

     “Did you seriously—Do you think before you speak?”

     “Not usually,” he said as he reached out and took my hand, lacing his fingers through mine. My hand felt small in his. “But I meant what I said. I’m ready to take this a step further. I want to be your boyfriend. Really badly, actually.”

     I smiled. It felt crazy big on my face, which was super embarrassing to think about, but I couldn’t stop. “I want to be your boyfriend, too, but I need you to know that this doesn’t mean I’m forcing you into coming out before you’re ready. We can keep this a secret.”

     He swallowed, looking off to the side. “I don’t want to keep this a secret forever, but I need a little more time to work up to it. I know that’s not fair to you, but—”

     “You don’t have to explain. I understand what you’re going through.” I squeezed his hand. “I remember how hard it was for me to come out to my family and friends. It’s not an easy thing to do, and no one has the right to rush you, so take all the time you need.”

     “Can I hug you?”

     The request was so innocent in comparison to anything he’d ever asked of me that it took me a moment to process it. When the information sank in, I spread my arms open, and he bounded into them, lifting me off my feet and pulling me closer to him.

     “You’re too good for me,” he said. “You make a mess of me.”

     I giggled when he scattered kisses on my neck. “That tickles.”

     “Does it?” He did it again.

     “Oh, my God, Eren. Stop. I’m serious.”

     “But I’m not doing anything.”

     I pushed at his face as he continued, laughing way too hard all the while. “Stop. I mean it. Someone will hear us.”

     “Who will hear us? Everyone left already.” He buried his face in my neck, and I snorted. He drew back to look me in the eye. “Did you just snort?”

     “No,” I said right away, mortified. “You’re hearing things.”

     He smirked. “I don’t think so. You snorted.”

     “Nope. You’re wrong.”

     With a beautiful smile on his face, he kissed me and walked forward until my back pressed against the tiled wall. I wrapped my legs around his waist, desperate to have him closer, and our hips pushed together. He made a noise in the back of his throat that made my stomach squirm. “I can’t believe you’re my boyfriend now,” Eren said before he nipped my lower lip. “I guess I should stop acting like a caveman, huh? Take things slower? I don’t want to rush you.”

     “Are you kidding me? You’re not rushing me.” I put my hands on either side of his face to angle his head back. Our eyes met. “I love the pace we have going right now.”

     “Seriously? So, you don’t want to slow things down at all?”

     I shook my head. “Not-uh. I mean, unless you want to.”    

     “Fuck no. I want you so bad. I just didn’t want you to think that we have to stick to this pace if you’re not comfortable with it.”

     I rolled my hips. “Trust me, I’m comfortable with it.”

     “Don’t do that,” he groaned. “I’m already losing my mind here.”

     “Want to come to my house after school? You can tell your parents that I’m tutoring you, which, by the way, I plan on doing. We need to get that math grade of yours up. Wouldn’t want you to get kicked off the football team, now would we?”

     He pecked my neck again. I batted at his face, stifling a chuckle.

     “Who knew you could be a tease?” he said.

     “What? I’m not being a tease. I’m serious here. You need to get your grade up.”

     “Does that mean we can’t do anything until I take my tutoring seriously?”

     Was this guy insane? That never once crossed my mind. He obviously hadn’t been paying attention to how I reacted whenever he touched me. If he had, he’d know I became complete mush. How could he think I’d be able to hold back if he initiated anything? What a joke. Still, I could use this to my advantage. I wasn’t kidding around when I told him he needed to get his grade up. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to hold out while I was tutoring him. Or at least to make him think I was holding out. That way he wouldn’t touch me, because once those godly hands were on me, I was as good as gone.

     One hundred percent _gone_. Straight into the world of I’m-way-too-aroused-to-make-my-brain-function-properly.

     “That’s exactly what this means,” I said in the best stern voice I could make. It was awful. That’s why it surprised me to no end when Eren pouted. Literally pouted.

     Oh, jeez. He looked so cute. What the fuck?

     “Just think of it as the motivation you need to concentrate during our tutor sessions,” I added in a hurry, squishing his cheeks together.  

     “If I’m being honest here, that’s all the motivation I’ll ever need to get my act together.”

     I laughed. “See? You’ll be good at math in no time.”

     “Who would have guessed that I’d actually want to be good at math. But, hey, we should get going before Coach sends someone in here to come check up on us. We’ve been in here for a while.”

     I’d completely forgotten that we were in gym class. Crap.

     “Put me down,” I said, tapping on his leg with my foot. “I haven’t changed into my gym clothes yet.”

     He set me on my feet, and without thought, I lifted my shirt up and over my head. It was only when I was standing there shirtless that I remembered Eren was _right here in front of me_. What in the hell was I doing?

     “Oh.” I looked up at him while I covered my chest with my shirt. “Um, you can go out. I’ll catch up to you.”

     “And miss this opportunity? I don’t think so.”

     “Stop. This is super embarrassing.”

     “I literally came between your thighs, but being shirtless in front of me is embarrassing?”

     My cheeks burned. I brought the shirt up so he couldn’t see my face. “We were in the dark. You couldn’t really see anything.”

     “I hate to disappoint you, but I saw plenty.” He hooked his finger around the front of my jeans and tugged on them until the button popped open. “And I liked what I saw.”

     I peeked at him through my fingers. “Really?”

     “Yeah, but if you’re uncomfortable with me staying in here while you get undressed, I’ll wait for you outside.”

     I caught him by the arm just as he turned toward the door. When he looked back at me, I averted my gaze, but gave my hips a subtle shake and said, “Take them off for me.”

     God, had I really just said that? Aloud? So he could hear me?

     Before I could burst into a million different pieces due to embarrassment overload, Eren pushed down my jeans. I counted back from ten, hoping to build up some courage to look at him, but then I felt his lips on my inner thigh and my entire brain—quite possibly my heart, too—fried in a millisecond. Chills raced down my spine as he teased up a hickey with slow sucks that elicited a shaky breath from me. Then I felt him drag his tongue upwards, towards my...

     “What are you doing?” I practically hollered, grabbing onto his shoulders. My eyes snapped down to his and he grinned with his face still pressed to my thigh. Damn. He was going to kill me.

     “I thought I’d relieve you of this.” He cupped my erection through my boxers. My hips pushed forward into his hand without my permission.

     “We’re at school,” I hissed.

     “I’m well aware of that. But I thought it’d be awkward to try to hide this in your gym shorts.”

     I squeezed my eyes shut. Was he offering to give me a blow job? At school? Holy shit. I wasn’t programmed to deal with this type of stuff. My brain was already switched to overdrive. But the idea of having his mouth on my dick...

     God.

     “Hey, are you in here Eren?” That was Jean’s voice. He came bursting into the shower room a second later like he wanted everyone within a ten-mile radius to hear him. “Come on, man! Coach is going to give you so much shit if you don’t get out there right now. Where are you?” He rapped on the wall several times. “Eren?”

     “Fuck,” Eren said under his breath. Then, “I’ll be out there in a minute!”

     “You better hurry up. You know that vein on the side of Coach’s head? It is fully visible, man. He’s pissed.”

     “I said I’ll be out in a minute!”

     “Fine. I’ll tell him you’re on your way out.”

     We both held our breath until we heard the door to the shower room shut. Then we let out the breath we’d been holding.

     “I better get out there,” Eren said as he stood up.

     “Yeah, go.”

     “After school, meet by my truck?”

     I nodded. “Yeah, by your truck.”

     He kissed me before he darted out of the shower. I pressed my lips together, grinning.

     Eren Jaeger was my boyfriend! My boyfriend!

     Shit, I needed to talk to Farlan.


	6. Chapter 6

**Me: Meet me by your car after class. We’re skipping sixth period for emergency purposes, so don’t even think about ignoring this text message, Farlan Church, or I might actually die! We’re talking physical death here.**

I sent him another text for good measure.

**Me: Don’t be the one to put me in my grave.**

     I glanced at the clock above the door. Five more minutes of hell with Mrs. Frane, then I’d be home free to tell Farlan about what happened between me and Eren during gym class. I was way too excited to share this golden information with him. Would he even believe me when I told him I was dating the boy I’d been crushing on for the past five years? The boy we both thought was as straight as an arrow (we were wrong as fuck)? But this was really happening! This was a cold, hard—extremely hard—fact! Eren and I were officially a couple.

     Unable to contain my happiness, it exploded out of me in the form of a squeal, which caught the attention of Isabel. She sat next to me in this hellish class known as AP English. That was something I would change in a heartbeat, because a Cheshire grin was forming on her face. It was the infamous one that assured me she was ready to stick her nose where it didn’t belong; just shove it right in my business. I didn’t have time to deal with her twenty questions today, so I mouthed, “No.”

     Her grin widened.

     I pointed at her, narrowing my eyes to slits as I repeated, “No. I will kill you.”

     The spawn of Satan was not having it. For the remainder of class, she kept her eyes on me. Then the release bell rang, and she looped her arm through mine the second I stood up.

     “So,” she drawled while she watched me struggle to put my English textbook into my backpack one-handed, “that was a nice squeal you let out there.”

     “Me? Squeal? I don’t think so.”

     “The fact that you’re denying it just makes me more suspicious. You were a little touchy feely with Eren this past Saturday. Since when are you two that close? Is something going on there?”

     “No. This has nothing to do with Eren.”

     She raised an eyebrow. “You sure?”

     I batted her away. “I’m sure. Now shoo. I have to meet Farlan.”

     Suddenly her hold on me loosened. When I turned to look at her, I was surprised to see a blush coloring her cheeks.

     Oh, now the tables had turned! It was my turn to don a creepy grin.

     “What’s the blush for?” I asked.

     “Blush?” She touched her cheeks as she turned her face away. “It’s nothing.”

     “Oh, well, if it’s nothing, then I won’t tell you what he said about you after we left Titans on Saturday.” I waited for her to take the bait and...

     “He said something about me?”

     I whirled around and pointed at her face. “Aha! You like him! You like my best friend!”

     Her eyes widened before they darted from left to right. There were a few stragglers left in the classroom, but they were already heading out. “Lower your voice.”

     “You like him,” I repeated.

     “Okay, I might like him. _Might._ ” She shrugged. “I mean, he’s really cute.”

     “Really now? Do you want me to talk to him for you?”

     She narrowed her eyes. “And what do you want in return?”

     “Nothing major,” I said while I zipped up my backpack and slipped my arms through the straps. “I just want you to stop trying to figure out who I’m fooling around with.”

     “I knew that’s what you’d ask for. Ugh, fine. I’ll stop. Just make sure you put in a good word for me with Farlan. And give him my number if he’s interested.”

     “Okay, okay. I will.” I gave her a little shove in the direction of the door. “Now go. I’m in a hurry, but I’ll let you know what he says tomorrow.”

     We parted ways as we headed out of the classroom, then I rushed towards the front entrance. If one of the teachers spotted me making a break for it, that was it. I’d be guided back toward my next hour, and I wouldn’t have the chance to update Farlan on my relationship status. That’s why I had to get out of here while there were still other students crowding the halls. I couldn’t be stopped until I reached the students’ parking lot. That was my mission in life right now, because if I had to sit through another class, I would lose my mind.  

     I’d almost made it to the double doors when my phone vibrated in my back pocket. I slid it out and looked down at the screen.

     **Farlan: Where are you? I’m by my car already.**

Two seconds later, another text came through.

**Farlan: Does this have something to do with Eren? I swear if he hurt you in any way, I will chop his dick off.**

     I rolled my eyes. Farlan had always been an overprotective friend. That got us into a lot of trouble when we were kids, because whenever he had noticed someone bullying me, he sent his fists flying before asking any questions. He saved those for later, when the person he pummeled couldn’t even speak anymore. I can’t even remember how many times that led to us being sent to the principal’s office.

     **Me: Calm your tits. I’m almost there.**

I shoved open the doors and hurried to Farlan’s old, beat up Camaro. He was already in the driver’s seat, hands on the wheel like he planned on driving away the second I got in.

     Pulling open the passenger side door, I poked my head in and said, “Stop overthinking things. You’re frying your brain.” I slid my backpack off and tossed it inside. Then I sat down. The interior of his car always smelled like Royal-Pine air freshener.

     “Well?” Farlan boomed when I didn’t say anything.

     I turned to face him. “Guess who’s dating Eren Jaeger?”

     He looked at me, blinked, and then yelled, “You made me skip sixth period for that? I thought he did something to you. I was literally about to tear through the school looking for him.”

     “What? Of course I made you skip sixth period for this. Do you realize how major this is? I’m dating Eren, the guy I thought I never had a chance with.”

     He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples as though he wanted to erase his previous response. “Sorry. I know how major this is for you. You’ve liked Eren since, what? The seventh grade? I get that. But”—he gave me a sideways glance—“I thought he might have been messing around with you. He acts like a total fuckboy at football practice, so you can’t blame me for assuming he was playing a prank on you. I guess I was just worried that his friends may have set him up to this.”

     “But I told you all the things we did. You think he would go that far for a prank?”

     Farlan sighed. “No. I doubt he’d go that far if he was joking around. Look, I don’t know what I was thinking earlier. He just rubs me the wrong way.”

     I folded my arms over my chest. “Well, he’s my boyfriend now. Thanks for making me think you actually supported me.”

     “Don’t be like that. I do support you. I meant everything I said at lunch.”

     “Is that why you’re telling me you think Eren’s playing a prank on me?” I shot back.

     “He flirts with all the cheerleaders.” He sighed in exasperation. “Can’t I be worried about my best friend? I didn’t want to see you get hurt.”

     I hmphed, but his words sank in nonetheless. If I were to be honest with myself, I’d admit that Eren did come off like a fuckboy, which is why I believed he was straight in the first place. He flirted with any girl he came across (except for Annie).

     I groaned. “Okay. I understand why that thought may have crossed your mind. But still.”

     “Stop pouting. If Eren’s serious about you, then I don’t have a problem with you guys going out. I want you to be happy.”

     “You mean it?”

     “You know I do. I care about you, Levi. You’re like my brother.”

     “A brother you almost made cry. And I was so happy too.”

     “I’m sorry. Cut me some slack!”

     I leaned toward him and poked him in the chest. “Are you going to be nice to Eren? Because if you’re not, I’m not going to cut you any slack.”

     “I’ll be nice to him so long as he’s being good to you,” he said.

     “Okay, fair.” Suddenly Isabel popped into my mind. I smiled wide, which earned me an eyebrow lift. Oh, I couldn’t wait to drop this rock on him. “You remember Isabel from Saturday night?”

     Farlan’s eyes widened a fraction. He turned his head and rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah. What about her?”

     I pulled my backpack onto my lap and let him simmer in his curiosity for a while. If he got frustrated while waiting around for me to spill the beans, then I’d know he was interested in Isabel. It was funny to think about them going out. Farlan turned into a blushing moron around girls he liked. Now that I thought about it, how did he end up in a go-kart with her on Saturday night? I know for a fact he wouldn’t have been the one to suggest it—being too shy and all. Did she just hop in one and tug him along for the ride? If that’s what happened, he must have been sweating bullets the whole time. I muffled laughter.

     “What is with you? Has going out with Eren for an hour affected your brain already? Why did you even bring her up?” Farlan spurted all this out in an irritated tone. I took that as a good sign, so I continued to act innocent, shrugging and making an I-dunno sound. “What do you mean ‘you don’t know?’ Levi—”         

     “She might have mentioned you in English today,” I said as casually as I could.

     “Wait, really?”

     “Mhm, it’s not a big deal. She just thought you were cute.”

     Both his eyes popped open. “How is that not a big deal? Are you kidding me right now? She said I was cute!”

     He was blushing so hard, he looked like a ripe tomato—ready for picking. Seeing him this flustered made me laugh a little too hard. Then again, I reacted the same way when it came to Eren.

     “Stop laughing, you asshole,” he grumbled.

     “Sorry.” When my laughter was under control, I added, “So, you like her, huh?”

     “Do you want me to spell it out for you?”

     Taking out a pen from my backpack, I grabbed him by the wrist and wrote her number on his arm. “Text her, then.”

     “Is she all right with that?”

     “Yep,” I said, putting the cap back on the pen.

     He took his cell phone out of his back pocket and programmed her number into it. I smiled as I watched him do this. He looked so happy. It was nice to see him like this for a change. Since his father’s back injury earlier this year, which forced him to leave his job, Farlan had been pushing himself at his part-time job to make up for the lost income. Because of this, he’d been struggling to keep up with his studies and football practice. It weighed on him more than he let on. But he deserved to smile freely, the way he was doing now.

     I couldn’t even remember the last time I saw him smile like this.

     Jeez, I made my own self sad. Fuck.

     “What?” he asked when he noticed me blinking like a madman. “Are you about to cry?”

     I smacked my face a couple of times. “No!”

     “Yes, you are. What’s wrong?”

     I shook my head.

     “Levi, what is it?”

     “I’m just happy that you’re happy. You’ve been under a lot of stress lately. And you work too much.”

     He reached across the center console and put his hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry about me. I’m fine.”

     “Idiot. Even if you say that, I’m still going to worry. Especially when you show up to school looking like you just got ran over by a semi. You need to sleep more!”

     Farlan laughed. “Yes, mother.”

     I suddenly caught sight of the clock. What? Forty minutes had passed already? How?

     “Shit. I have to go.” I pushed open the passenger side door without explaining anything to him. That’s probably why he caught me by the wrist and forced me to sit back down.

     “Where do you have to go in such a hurry? Aren’t I supposed to drive you home?”

     My cheeks heated up. I shook my head. “No, not today. Um, I’m meeting up with Eren. He’s coming to my house for some tutoring.”

     “Tutoring?” Farlan deadpanned. “Sure.”

     “I’m serious! Stop jumping to conclusions. He has to get his math grade up.”

     “Is that the only thing that’s going to be getting up?” He gave me a meaningful look.

     My mouth dropped open. I smacked his arm. “Stop it.”

     He leaned to the side and pulled open the glove compartment. He pushed some things aside, then grabbed a small box he had tucked in the corner. I had no idea what it was until he opened it and slipped out a condom.

     What the fuck? WHAT THE FUCK?

     Were my eyes deceiving me? I rubbed them with my fists, but the image in front of me remained the same.

     “What the hell, Farlan!” I screamed when he handed the condom™ to me. “Why do you even have this? Have you been sleeping with someone?”

     He smacked me on the back of the head. “No, you moron. And you told me not to jump to conclusions.” He heaved out a sigh. “The other day my dad sat me down and gave me the sex talk. Afterwards, he insisted that I carry a box of condoms around. You know ‘just in case,’ like that type of thing would ever happen to me out of the blue. But I took them to set his mind at ease.”

     “Hey, you never know when you might need one,” I said, staring at the condom like it was a foreign object, which it basically was. I’d never handled one before. “Props to your dad for teaching you about safe sex.”

     He wrinkled his nose and made a shooing motion with his hand. “Just take it. You and Eren will probably use it today.”

     Startled, and super embarrassed, I blurted out, “Stop being gross!”

     “ _I’m_ gross? You’re the one that’s doing strange things at an amusement center! I’m just looking out for you.”

     “You just ruined this entire conversation. Now I’m too embarrassed! I can’t even make eye contact... You know what? I’m leaving! Bye! Remind me to never tell you anything like that ever again.”

     “Calm down. You’re being way too loud.”

     I pushed open the car door and stepped out, slipping the condom into my pocket. “It’s your fault that I’m being loud! You know I get this way when I’m too embarrassed!”

     “Yeah, I know.” Another sigh, followed by a chuckle. “Just text me when you have some free time. Oh, and Levi?” I looked back at him. He winked and said, “Have fun.”

     That bastard.

     “Bye!” I slammed the door shut with all the strength I could muster and sped-walked to Eren’s truck. School wouldn’t let out for another ten minutes. It’d be weird to hang around his truck for that long, especially if he came out with one of his friends. What would I even say in that type of situation? The only friend of his that knew about me was Jean. And he didn’t really _know_ about me. He just thought I was Eren’s math tutor.

     Okay, I was overthinking this. It wasn’t that big of a deal. If someone came out with him, I’d play it cool.

     ...

     _AS IF I’M CAPABLE OF PLAYING IT COOL!_

     I was giving myself way too much credit. All Eren had to do to make me into a blushing, incapable-of-speech disaster was smile. It didn’t help that he got handsy when we were together (not that I minded). Fuck. Why didn’t I possess an ounce of self-control when it came to him? He could throw me off a bridge and I’d feel blessed. Hell, I’d probably thank him for the experience. Here I was going on and on about him not being inconspicuous, yet I became a puddle of arousal whenever he was around—a very obvious puddle. God, I needed to learn how to control myself. And soon.

     When I reached his truck, I sat down on the parking curb and rummaged through my backpack, determined to compose myself before Eren showed up. I grabbed my spiral notebook and flipped it open to a blank page. Then I started working on my English homework. That was guaranteed to cool me down.

     It was hot out today. The sun was high, glaring. It was hard to concentrate on anything. I tugged on the collar of my shirt, fanning out my chest.

     “Feeling hot?”

     Startled, I looked up and my eyes clashed with Eren’s. Shit! When the hell did he get here?

     “I’m fine,” I said in a rush, standing up without thought. My notebook crashed to the ground. As I bent to pick it up, God cursed me, because the condom I’d put in my pocket slipped out. It fell to the ground where everyone could see it. I let out a shriek that could not be formed into words.

     “Is that...a condom?”

     “No!” I shouted, picking it up and stuffing it into my backpack.

     “Levi, that was a condom.”

     Feeling my face heating up, I said, while looking down at the ground, “Okay, it is a condom, but it’s not what you think. Farlan just gave it to me—”

     “Farlan gave it to you?” he interrupted, putting his hands on my shoulders and giving me a little shake. “Why would he give you something like that?”

     Oh, shit. I hadn’t had the chance to explain to him how I’d told Farlan about us. Would he be angry with me when he found out? I couldn’t blame him if it turned out that way. It wasn’t my place to out him to anyone, even if that someone was my best friend.

     “I told him about us,” I said in a small voice. When he didn’t say anything, I quickly added, “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything without asking you. I’ll understand if you’re mad—”

     “He didn’t question it? That I’m gay?”

     “Huh? Well, yeah, he had his doubts at first, but after I explained everything, he seemed fine with it. He even supports us going out. Hence the condom.”

     Eren leaned up against the side of his truck and dropped his head into his hands. I reached out, ready to apologize, but then he laughed. “God,” he said after a while, “it feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I feel relieved. Is that stupid? I mean, I never thought anyone would accept it. I thought I would always have to pretend to be something that I’m not. I guess I’m just glad that there are people who will accept me for who I am.” His eyes darted to mine. He grinned as he rubbed the back of his neck, sheepish. “I must sound like an idiot.”

     “You don’t sound like an idiot. But if you don’t hurry up and get in your truck, I’m going to jump you.”

     Who knew he could be this cute? It was too much for my heart to handle. I did not possess the self-control to hold back.

     Now Eren’s grin turned into something lecherous. He said, “I thought we couldn’t do anything until I took my tutoring seriously?”

     Oh, crap. I did say that, didn’t I? Or at least I implied it.

     Fuck my past self.

     “And I meant it,” I blurted out, too embarrassed to admit that I was already turned on before we even reached my house. I yanked open the passenger side door and flung myself and my backpack inside.

     When he climbed into the truck a moment later, he looked too serious. He gripped onto the steering wheel as if he planned to tear it right off.

     “Eren?”

     His head dropped back onto the headrest. Then, suddenly, he sat up straight and blew out a slow breath. He slapped his hands on the steering wheel and said, “Okay, I’m good.”

     “Huh?”

     “I can keep my hands to myself,” he said, more to himself than to me. “I’ll show you that I can be a gentleman. I’ll study hard and get better at math. I won’t touch you until I do.” He turned the key in the ignition and the truck rumbled to life. As he backed out of the parking space, I felt like I’d just set myself up.

     He wouldn’t touch me until he improved in math? How long would that be?

     I was going to die. And it was no one’s fault but my own.

     _Bye, cruel world. I killed my chance at happiness today._

    

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Narrator voice: But will Eren really be able to keep his hands to himself during his tutoring session? Find out next time on Personal Tutor!
> 
> Hey, guys! I feel so happy that people are still interested in this goofy fic of mine. I get freakin' stupid happy whenever I write a new chapter. They're such dorks, so oblivious and naive. Sheesh, I love them too much.  
> Btw, thank you for all the nice comments last chapter. I showed them off to my husband, who I think (I know) is 5,000% done with me and my ereri obsession. 
> 
> See you guys next chapter! Things are going to get fun. (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧


	7. Chapter 7

On the ride home, I kept waiting for Eren to forget himself and touch me in some way—put his hand on my thigh, or link our fingers together over the armrest, _something_ that’d close the distance between us—but he kept his eyes on the road and his hands on the wheel. I guess he was serious about not laying a finger on me until he turned his grade around. I tried not to show my disappointment from the lack of contact between us, but it must have shown on my face, because when he looked at me he asked, “Are you feeling okay? You’ve been quiet since we left school.”

     “Oh, I’m fine,” I said in a rush. “Just thinking.”

     “About?”

     I searched for something to say, but drew a blank. “Um, well...” _Shit, shit, shit. Say something before he realizes something’s wrong._ “About Isabel,” I blurted out. “I’m thinking about Isabel.”

     “Isabel?”

     “Yeah, uh, today I found out that she likes Farlan. I was talking with him before I met up with you, so I’m just thinking about that.” I chuckled, awkward as can be, and prayed God would have mercy on me and strike me dead right here and now. Just send a lightning bolt down that would fry me to a crisp before I could make an even bigger fool of myself. I mean, I didn’t even know my voice could get that high in pitch. I sounded like that cartoon chipmunk. What was his name? Alvin?

     _God, I don’t ask for much, but now’s the time to end my life!_

     “She might have some competition, then,” he said, which was literally the only thing in the world that could distract me from my embarrassment.

     “Huh? What competition? Who else likes Farlan?”

     “Me.”

     I inhaled so hard, I choked on the air I’d sucked in.

     Eren erupted in laughter when I pointed at him with wide, bulging eyes. “Oh my god, you actually believed me? You should see your face right now.”

     It took me a moment to recover from my coughing fit, but once I did, I couldn’t bring myself to look at him. I turned my head to gaze out the window instead, watching the flash of trees go by in a blur of color.

     “Hey.” A tug on the sleeve of my shirt prompted me to look back at him. “I’m just teasing you. Don’t be mad.”

     “I’m not mad,” I grumbled.

     “Here.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. He held it out to me. “Pick something for us to listen to.”

     I took the phone from him and pressed the HOME button to unlock the screen. He had an artwork of a cat flipping off the camera as his wallpaper. I snorted. “Nice wallpaper.”

     “Oh? What’s your wallpaper, then?”

     I’d set my wallpaper to one of the pictures we’d taken in the photo booth at Titans. In it, Eren had his arm around my shoulder, pulling me in close. Both of us were smiling idiotically wide. I loved it. “That’s a secret,” I said as I grabbed the AUX cord and plugged it into the headphone jack on his phone. I tapped the music app and put his songs on shuffle. “Far Too Young To Die” by Panic! At the Disco came on.

     “Tell me,” he said.

     “Nope, sorry. That’s classified information.”

     “Oh, come on. I’m dying of curiosity.”

     “You really want to know?” I asked.

     “Yes.”

     “Okay,” I said, serious, then added, “For three easy payments of sixty-nine dollars, you can see my wallpaper. Or you can pay the two-hundred seven dollars up front. It’s up to you, really.”

     He looked at me in silence, his mouth forming a little “o,” and then he returned his gaze to the road. Up ahead, there was a traffic light. It happened to turn yellow at that exact moment (Satan, is that you?). The little “o” turned into a smirk that told me he was going to use the red light to his advantage. I tried to prepare myself for what he was about to do, but when he slammed on the brakes and put his truck in park, I squeaked. “Three easy payments of sixty-nine dollars, aye?” he said while he leaned over the center console. He pressed his lips to mine, but didn’t kiss me. He captured my bottom lip between his teeth, biting it before he asked, “I can make those payments using another form of sixty-nine. Is that acceptable?”

     I leaned up, ready to kiss him and agree to all the sixty-nine payments, but then he moved back into his seat.

     “Oh, wait, I forgot I can’t touch you until I get my math grade up,” he said. “Too bad.”

     This teasing mother fucker! Throwing that back at me like that. He was definitely doing it on purpose.

     I glared at him for half a second, then leaned back in the seat and folded my arms over my chest. I was aware I was behaving like a child, but I couldn’t believe I let myself get worked up over that. Okay, that was a lie, I _could_ believe it. BUT STILL. When would I learn to control myself?

     “You’re right,” I shot back. “You can’t touch me until you have a passing grade in math.”

     Eren’s facial expression went serious. “I know. That’s why I’m planning to study hard today.”   

     What kind of response was that? Couldn’t he tell I didn’t mean a word of what I was saying? Or was he taking this seriously because he wanted to prove himself to me? That’s the only thing I could think of, because he’d have to be blind not to see how I reacted to him.

     I sighed. If that were the case, I didn’t want to make this harder for him. “It’s a picture of us.”

     “What?”

     “My wallpaper,” I said. “It’s a picture of us.”

     He smiled and reached for my hand. I placed it in his. “You really are too cute.”

     For the rest of the drive, we sat in comfortable silence, which was shattered the moment he pulled up in front of my house. I shot up in my seat when I saw my mom unloading groceries from the trunk of her car. She was wearing the shortest shorts in the history of shorts, and a top that revealed her midriff. Not that I minded her outfit. I loved my mom to death—seriously, I would kill a flock of men for her—but she was the complete opposite of Eren’s mom, who was Betty Crocker in the flesh. So, I couldn’t help but wonder what he would think of her.

     “Is that your sister?” Eren asked, parking against the curb. “You guys look so much alike.”

     “Uh, no, that’s not my sister. That’s my mom.”          

     His eyes bulged as they flicked from her to me. “Really? She looks so young.”

     “She’s only thirty-two.”

     “Wait, that means...”

     “Yeah, she had me when she was fifteen.” I leaned down to grab my backpack and slung it over my shoulder. “She raised me all by herself, so we’re really close.”

     “Wow. That must have been hard, but she did a good job from what I can see. You turned out amazing.”

     My entire face went white-hot. “Don’t say stuff like that right when you’re about to meet my mom! God, am I blushing? I am, aren’t I? Now she’s going to know who you are the second she sees you.”

     “You told her about me?”

     I glanced at him, sheepish. “I might have mentioned you a few times. I tell her almost everything, so it was hard not to bring you up in conversation.”

     “Well, then, come on, let me go meet her.”

     Both of us got out of the truck. I lingered back on the sidewalk and waited for my mom to look over our way. When she did, I gave her a meaningful look I knew she’d understand. She gave me a knowing smile as she shook her head.

     “Who’s this?” she asked as she walked over.

     “This is Eren,” I said, her eyes widening in recognition. I’d mentioned Eren too many times for her not to recognize his name. “Remember I told you I’ll be tutoring him in math for a while.”

     She held out her hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Eren. I’m Kuchel. Levi’s mom.”

     “It’s nice to meet you, too.” He took her hand and shook it.

     She turned to me. “I was heading out, actually. I just came by to drop off some groceries.”

     “Where are you going?”

     “To go see your Uncle Kenny. Apparently, he got himself into some trouble with his landlord. Nothing major, so don’t make that face. I’m sure we’ll have it all settled before I have to leave for work.”

     “Should I come with you?” I asked.

     She ruffled my hair. “No, it’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”

     Kenny wasn’t someone to get into a bit of trouble. It came in heaps with him, because he was the type to lose control when he got angry. He also had a habit of “forgetting” to pay his rent. I had no doubt that that’s what this was about, and after the landlord came to collect it, he’d picked a fight. Now Mom was off to clean up his mess.

     “You sure?”

     “I’m sure,” she reassured me. “Help me with the groceries, then I’ll get out of your hair.”

     Eren and I both grabbed some bags from the trunk and walked to the front door with them in hand. He followed me into the kitchen, where we set the bags down on the island. After we got everything inside, Mom kissed me on the cheek—despite my protests—and left. I started to put stuff away, trying hard not to think about Kenny, or the trouble he managed to get himself into. Mom couldn’t afford to keep paying his rent like this. Maybe it was time I got another part-time job. She could use the help.

     These thoughts were bouncing around in my head when Eren came to stand behind me. He wrapped his arms around my waist and rested his chin on my shoulder.

     “You okay?” he asked.

     “Yeah, just a little worried.”

     “Is your Uncle Kenny an ass?”

     I sighed. “It’s more complicated than that. He’s...difficult.”

     We left it at that. Neither of us wanted to talk about my uncle, and I was grateful that he didn’t prod for more information.

     “Should we go to your room?” he suggested.

     I nodded and led him down the hallway toward my bedroom. It was cleaner than clean. If he noticed the sterile condition it was in, he chose not to say anything about it. Yet another thing I was grateful for. My absurd cleaning habits were not something I wanted to discuss with him right now. Especially since he’d dumped his backpack on the floor and was now in the process of removing his letterman jacket. His arms muscles could be seen clearly past the short sleeves of his white Tee. They were so yummy.

     “Should I sit at the desk, then, Mr. Ackerman?”

     I looked at him, at his ever-green eyes and that damn perfect smile that made my stomach lurch. I swallowed. “Yes.”

     He pulled out my computer chair and sat down, bending over to unzip his backpack. He pulled out his math textbook. As he flipped it open to a page he’d marked by shoving a crumpled gum wrapper in between the pages, I sat on the bed, making sure to look severe, like someone ready to teach him All About Math.

     “A fair warning,” he began, “I fell asleep during math class and have no idea how to do the homework.”

     “Eren!”

     “I trust you to teach me how to do this crap.”

     I held my hand out. “Hand over the textbook. I’ve got this covered.”

               

      

| Eren |

 

    

“Did I do it right?” I handed Levi the piece of paper and watched him scan over the problem I’d just completed. I fidgeted in my seat, more nervous than I should be. He had spent the last hour going over the math homework I’d been assigned today, but I still wasn’t sure if I had it down. Math had always been my worst subject. That never bothered me much before—although it probably should have, considering my position on the football team—but now it definitely did. I didn’t want him to think I was some incompetent moron.

     Levi tapped the eraser of his pencil on his lower lip, looking deep in thought. “You missed a step here.” He pointed to my mistake. “Do you see where you went wrong?”

     “Fuck, yeah I do,” I said. Now that he pointed it out, it seemed obvious. How could I have missed it before?

     “It’s not a big deal.” His eyes moved up to meet mine. In this light, they looked more blue than grey. He had such long eyelashes too. “U-uh, here, let’s take it from the top.” He shoved the paper in my face, startling me, and slammed the pencil into my hand, but not before I saw that his cheeks were bright red.

     What was with that reaction? Could he not handle being stared at? Or was I the only one who could make him this flustered just by looking at him?

     _Let’s test it out._

     I leaned my elbow on the desk and turned my upper body to face him. As he went about explaining the process to solve the problem, gesturing to the textbook several times, I stared at him. The longer I stared, the deeper in color his blush became. It even spread down to his neckline. His fair skin disappeared beneath a warm, peach color that tempted me beyond reason. I had the strongest urge to bite him.    

     “D-did you get that?” he asked, peeking at me from the corner of his eye.

     I jumped a little at the sound of his voice, snapping back to reality. I hadn’t heard a single thing he’d said. “Not really. Do you mind explaining it again?”

     “Well, uh, you see here”—he pointed to the paper—“you added instead of multiplied, so you ended up with eight instead of twelve. So, when you rewrote the equation, you—” He broke off midsentence when I leaned in closer to him. I kept my eyes on the paper, feigning concentration, which was difficult. He smelled so good.

     “You can go on,” I said.

     “YES!” He cleared his throat, and then repeated in a normal tone, “Yes. Like I was saying, when you rewrote the equation, you ended up with eight plus five. You should have ended up with twelve plus five.”

     “So, the answer for x should’ve been seventeen, right?”

     “Yes.”

     “I think I got it now.”

     “Do you want to try another one?”

     “Could we take a break first?” I asked.

     He pushed back in his seat and stood up. “Yeah, let’s take a break. Do you want something to drink? Water? A soda?”

     “A soda sounds good.”

     “Okay, I’ll be right back.” He hurried out of his room.

     The second he turned the corner and disappeared from sight, I dropped my head into my hands with a groan. Why did I have to open my mouth back at school? I can’t believe I announced that I wouldn’t touch him until I raised my grade. I thought I’d have the will power to suppress these urges, but that’s when I believed he meant what he said when he told me we couldn’t do anything during my tutoring sessions. But now I could see he was holding back. Seriously, did he even want me to keep my hands to myself? Or was that some act he put up out of embarrassment?

     Frustrated, I stood up and walked over to his bed. I threw myself onto it and buried my face in his pillow. It smelled of him, like warm peppermint.

     “Mm,” I hummed.

     “Eren?”

     I raised my head to see Levi standing in the doorway with two cans of orange soda. He looked lost, even though this was his house. Was he that nervous seeing me on his bed? I laid my head down on the pillow and patted the empty space beside me. For a moment, he remained rooted to the spot he was in. Then, slowly, he approached the bed with careful steps. After he set the sodas down on the bedside table, moving aside a short stack of books, I pulled him down next to me. He gasped when I slid my hand beneath his T-shirt, trembling as I pressed my palm flat against the curve of his lower back until his body was flush with mine.

     He buried his face in my chest and mumbled something I couldn’t quite make out.

     “Hm?” I said, running my fingertips up along his spine.

     “Nothing,” he mumbled.

     “Didn’t sound like nothing to me.” I leaned down and pressed my lips to his jaw. He shivered. “Tell me what you said.”

     He clutched onto the front of my shirt and used his hold on it to pull his face closer to my chest. “It’s embarrassing.”     

     “Come on. Tell me.”

     He shook his head.

     “Levi, look at me.” It took him a while to conjure up the courage, but finally he tilted his head back to glance up at me. “You don’t have to be embarrassed in front of me. I won’t laugh at anything you say.”

     “Ugh.” He buried his face in my chest again. “Fine, I’ll tell you, but don’t look at me when I do.”

     I smiled. He was too fucking cute.

     “Okay, I won’t look,” I said.

     “Promise?”

     I bit my bottom lip. “I promise.”

     Silence. Then, in the smallest of voices, he whispered, “I said ‘touch me more.’”

     My entire body went rigid. Without thinking, I flipped him onto his back and leaned over him, placing my hands on either side of his head. He looked up at me with dark, hooded eyes, which almost made me lose the control I’d managed to hold onto. “Do you really want me to touch you?”

     He nodded. “I want you to touch me everywhere.”

     That did it. That made me snap.

     I bent down and kissed him, our lips clashing together without restraint. I slid my tongue under his and coaxed it into my mouth with one slow lick, turning my head to deepen the kiss. Our mouths met again and again, open and messy, driving me fucking crazy. I couldn’t even think anymore. All I could focus on was the need to be closer to him. I wanted to feel him beneath me, skin on skin, warm and sweaty and sticky, until I knew his body as well as my own. With that one desire driving my actions, I shifted my hips and pressed my crotch down on his. He moaned into my mouth, nails digging into my back as his lower half jerked up in response. I did it again and his head kicked back against the pillow, exposing his slender neck.

     “Tell me what you want me to do,” I said, pinning his hips down with my own, feeling how hard he was. “Let me know exactly what you want from me.” I kissed the side of his neck as I spoke. His pulse thudded against my lips, fast and unsteady.

     “I want you to touch me.”

     “Where? Here?” I cupped his dick through his jeans.

     His eyes squeezed shut. He started nodding, frantic, lips parting on a gasp.   

     “Only here?” I asked, popping open the button of his jeans while I kept my palm pressed tight against his erection. “Or do you want me to touch you here, too?” I ran my fingers along the cleft of his ass.

     “Please, please,” he said in a huff, fingers curling in and snatching handfuls of the sheet.

     I sat back on my heels and grabbed onto the waistband of his jeans and boxers. I eased them down over his hips before sliding them down his legs. “Have you touched yourself there before?”

     “Huh? Touched myself where?”

     “Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about. Here.” I slid my fingers over his entrance. His eyes snapped down to mine. He looked horrified. “You have, haven’t you?”

     Levi threw his arms over his face.     

     “You don’t have to be embarrassed about it,” I said, grabbing his ankle and bringing it to my lips. I kissed it. “I like that you’ve touched yourself.”

     I liked everything about him, which is why it shouldn’t have been so surprising that I felt comfortable being here with him like this. I always thought I’d have mixed feelings when I hooked up with a guy for the first time, but there was no doubt in my mind that I wanted him. Maybe that’s why I was able to do this without feeling guilty.

     “You don’t have to stare so hard,” he said, peeking at me from under his arm.

     “You say that like I can help it.” I put my hands on either side of his waist, running my thumbs up the sharp lines of his pelvic muscle. Everything about his body was mesmerizing to me. How did he expect me to not stare at him? It was impossible. “I can’t, by the way. Help it.”

     He groaned, then lifted himself up onto his elbows. He leaned to the side and pulled open the drawer of his bedside table. There was a lot of stuff crammed in there: index cards, permanent markers, a pack of batteries, individually wrapped candies, and an entire bottle of lube (that was almost empty, might I add). Just past that, tucked in the very back, was something that looked suspiciously like...

     “Is that a dildo?” I blurted out.

     Levi trained his gaze on me, closed the drawer after grabbing the lube, then said, very seriously, “No.”

     “You liar. That was a dildo.”

     “Eren, don’t make this difficult. That wasn’t a dildo.”

     I narrowed my eyes, and before he could react, I leaned forward and tugged the drawer open. Sure enough, a hot pink—HOT PINK!—dildo came rolling forward into plain view. When I looked back at Levi, he had his hands over his face.

     “Just let me die,” he said.

     “Should I really let you die? You’re still hard.”

     “I won’t be for long. You’re killing the mood.”

     “I can change that.” I reached for the lube, but before I could grab it, he slapped my hand, hard. I wondered if I’d actually ruined this by exposing his very out-there dildo. “Levi—”

     “This will be my first time...having sex...with anyone, ever. I pictured it happening differently.” He made a series of incoherent sounds. “I really can’t believe I’m saying this. I’m hard as all hell, and I’ve wanted you for so long... It’s just...”

     “You want it to be romantic?”           

     “Is that bad?”

     “No. I pictured it happening that way, too. I just lose my head when I’m with you.”

     “Really? You seem so calm.”

     I grabbed his hand and pressed it to my chest. My heart pounded even faster when he looked up at me with those sharp eyes of his. “Trust me, I’m anything but calm. I’m nervous. I don’t know if I’ll even be able to, you know, get you off. I have no experience with anal sex. Hell, I have no experience with sex. Period.”

     “You can relax about that. You’ll get me off. Seriously, you can breathe on my dick and I’ll come.”

     We looked at each other, then at the same time, we erupted in a fit of laughter.

     “I can’t believe I just passed up sex with you,” he said. “I must be mad.”

     “We’ll get around to it. In the meantime, I can still do something about this.” I ran my finger down the underside of his cock. He bit his bottom lip. Then he wrapped his arms around my neck and pulled me down so I was lying on top of him.

     “Take off your pants,” he said.

     That’s all I needed to hear. I stripped off my clothes and removed his shirt. And for the rest of the afternoon, we stayed in bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm well aware that I'm a tease, but I wanted their first time to be a bit more romantic then that. Both of them want it to be (low key).  
> But I'm excited for next chapter, because I'll be introducing a new character, which I've been thinking about nonstop for the past couple of weeks. ^^'
> 
> Sorry for always taking forever to update, but I'm always grateful for the comments and kudos I get (Have you left kudos? If you haven't, and you enjoy reading this story, then please consider pushing that kudos button, my friend). Really. You guys are beauts, and I'm glad there are still people out there that enjoy ereri as much as I do.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is anyone even still interested in this story? I have two jobs now, so finding time to update has been hard. But hey, here I am, 5,000 years late. xD
> 
> Anyway, enjoy!

**Eren: Meet me in front of the custodial room at lunch.**

     I read the text for a third time and still couldn’t think of a non-perverted reason he’d want to meet there. I needed to get my mind out of the gutter. We’d spent the better part of yesterday afternoon confined to bed, a tangle of breaths and limbs beneath the security of my duvet, doing all sorts of things not related to math. Could I even consider it a tutoring session when both of us ended up having multiple orgasms? No, no I couldn’t. So the last thing I needed to do was make this innocent meet up sexual. For all I knew, he could want help with his homework. We didn’t exactly finish it yesterday.

     With my mind made up, I responded to his text. I could keep myself in check for an entire hour. Watch me succeed at mastering self-control for the greater good!

     **Me: Why can’t we meet at the cafeteria instead?**

     My phone buzzed in my hand before I could set it down on the desk. I glanced around the classroom to confirm no one was looking my way, then peeked down at the screen.

     **Eren: You become an exhibitionist overnight?**

     **Me: What do you mean? You want to meet up to do...that?**

     **Eren: Why don’t you come to the custodial room and find out? ;)**

     Me? Have self-control when Eren existed? Impossible. I was already sweating from the mere thought of having his hands back on me. I had to wonder if I’d ever get enough of him. Did I even want to?

     **Me: You know I’ll be there now.**

**Eren: I’m counting on it.**

     No sooner had I tucked my phone into my pocket than the release bell rang. I didn’t stick around to listen to the teacher drone on about the homework she was assigning us tonight. I pushed back in my seat and snatched up my backpack from off the floor, looping my arm through the strap as I rushed out the door. The custodial room was near the cafeteria. If I wanted to avoid bumping into Farlan and having to explain why I wouldn’t be eating lunch with him today, I needed to text him beforehand. I dug my phone out of my pocket, ready to type up a quick message, when someone slammed into me with enough force to send me sprawling to the floor. I sat down with a thump.   

     “Oh, my god! I’m so sorry! I didn’t even see you.” Someone knelt in front of me, a boy with a headful of blonde hair and deep blue eyes filled with concern. I’d never seen him around before. “Are you okay? I hit you pretty hard.” He held out his hand and helped me to my feet.

     “I’m fine,” I said, adjusting the straps of my backpack on my shoulders. Students walked around us without offering help. They just stared, the assholes. “It’s not your fault. I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.”

     “I could say the same.” He cast a nervous glance behind him. He didn’t seem to like the attention we were getting. “This is my first day here, and I’m having a hard time finding the cafeteria. Do you mind telling me which way I have to go from here?”

     “Oh, I’m heading over that way. I can show you where it is.”

     He perked up. “That’s a relief. I feel like I’ve been going around in circles. This school is much bigger than my old one.”

     “It’s no problem. I’m Levi, by the way.”

     “Armin. I’m...Armin.” He looked put off, as though he expected me to make a comment on his name. I’d never heard a name like his before, but I didn’t see anything wrong with it.

     “Cool name,” I said, hoping to ease his worry.

     His head whipped in my direction. “You think so?” He grinned, appearing pleased. “Thank you.”

     When we reached the cafeteria, I said, “I have to meet with someone today, but tomorrow, if you want, you can sit with me and my friend Farlan.”

     “Are you sure? It won’t be a bother or anything? I don’t want to impose.”

     “No, really, it’s no bother at all. I know how rough switching schools in the middle of the school year is. If you’re fine with us, then you’re welcome to sit at our table.”

     “Okay, then I’ll meet you here tomorrow.”

     “See you then.”

     We parted ways. As I walked down the crowded corridor toward the custodial room, I sent Farlan a text. I hoped he wouldn’t be too angry with me for ditching him at the last second. I’d have to make it up to him somehow. Or so I thought. Just as I was about to turn off my phone, the screen lit up with a new message.

     **Farlan: It’s fine. Isabel asked me to sit with her.**

**Me: Oh really? Details later?**

     **Farlan: No, perv!**

     A second passed before my phone went off again.

     **Farlan: Okay, maybe.**

**Me: Attaboy. Have a good time.**

     I slid my phone into my pocket and almost collided with Eren as I turned the corner. He steadied me by putting his hands on my arms. Then, with a mischevious smile on his face, he took my hand and pulled me into the custodial room, making sure to lock the door behind us. It smelled like disinfectant in here. That bothered me for all of 0.2 seconds, then he picked me up and sat me on the edge of a work table. All thoughts about anything other than his hands sliding up my thighs evaporated, just like that. Eren and his magical powers to turn my brain into a dysfunctional mess never failed.

     I loved it.

     “Are we going to dirty this up?” I asked, running my finger along the table top. When had I become so bold? God bless uncontrollable hormones. They were bringing me right out of my shell.  

     “I’d love to, but we can’t stay in here for long.”

     “Afraid the janitor will come back and see more of us than he wants to?”

     “That, and I have to go to my math class before next hour. Mr. Smith is letting me turn in my assignment late.”

     “Shit,” I said when I realized he was referring to the assignment we were working on yesterday. “It’s my fault you didn’t finish it on time. I’m sorry. Did you get in trouble?”

     He stepped between my legs. “No. And you don’t have to apologize. I liked everything we did yesterday, you know.”

     “Me too, but I feel bad. Do you want me to check the homework for you real fast?”            

     “You can, but that’s not why I brought you in here.” He slipped off his backpack and unzipped the bottom pocket. He looked a bit nervous as he pulled out a washer bracelet. “I know this is corny, but I made this for you.”

     I took the bracelet from him. Something had been carved in the wooden washer. I peered at it and read: _E & L_.  

     Nothing could have prepared me for the burst of emotion that made my heart explode inside my chest. I never knew Eren was capable of doing something like this. He made me a bracelet! A bracelet! How could someone be this perfect and sweet? @ God, I demand answers at once!

     “Fuck,” I said as he fastened the leather cord around my wrist. “I think I’m having a stroke. My heart is beating so fast. Feel.” I grabbed his hand and pressed it to my chest. “You killed me.”

     “You like it that much?”

     “Do you even have to ask?” I gestured to my chest. “Did you not feel my heart failing just now? Of course I like it. I’m never going to take it off.” I leaned forward to kiss him once, twice, three times. His lips were so soft. I wanted to nibble on them. “I can’t believe you made me a bracelet. Is this a dream? Quick. Pinch me.”

     Without any hesitation, he slid his hand under my leg and pinched my ass. “Convinced it’s not a dream yet? Or should I pinch you again?”

     “Hmm, I’m not convinced. I think you have no choice but to do that again.” I pressed my lips to his ear and whispered, “A little harder this time.”

     “Levi”—he gazed at me with such intensity, I shivered—“if you keep that up, I won’t be able to hold back.”

     God, the way he said my name made me lose my head. I almost told him there was no need to hold back, that he could take me right here, right now, but we were feet away from the real world. If someone heard us, hell would break loose. Neither of us wanted to deal with that, so I needed to behave—as hard (literally) as that was. “Here, get your homework out,” I said to distract myself, waving my hand around like a mad man. “I’ll check it before you turn it in.”

     Eren dug around in his backpack and took out a black binder. He flipped it open. “I did it fast, so I don’t know if my handwriting is legible.”

     “I’m sure it’s fine.”

     He handed the binder to me. I scanned his answers, surprised that a lot of them were correct. Had he actually been paying attention to what I’d taught him yesterday?

     The world was full of surprises!

     “Did I get any of them right?” he asked, sounding doubtful.

     “You only missed two.”

     “Wait, seriously?”

     “Yeah, take a look. You only missed problems four and ten.” I handed back his binder. “I’m relieved you got it. I thought I made no sense when I went over this with you yesterday. But you should probably turn it in as is. That way your teacher doesn’t think you copied someone at the last second.” I kissed him on the top of the head as he bent forward to zip up his backpack. When he looked at me, I said, “You did a good job. I’m proud of you. And before you say anything, yes, I’m aware I just sounded like a mom, but I mean it.”

     He grinned. “I have you to thank. How should I repay you? Is there anything you want me to do? After all, I did agree to become your own personal sex toy in exchange for some tutoring.”

     “Um, I...” I swallowed, unable to think when he spoke this way. “Y-you can do anything you want.”

     “Do you mean that?” He put his hands on either side of my legs on the table and leaned in close. He licked the side of my neck. “What if I want to mark you here? How would you explain that to your friends? Or maybe I should mark you where no one other than me can see it. Like here.” He ran his hand over my thigh. “Can I?”

     “Right now?”

     “I won’t do it if you don’t want me to.”

     “I want you to.” Despite the risk, I found myself pushing my jeans down around my ankles. I glanced at the door, knowing full well the janitor could return at any moment and catch us _in flagrante delicto_ , but none of that seemed to matter when Eren sank to his knees and hiked up the fabric of my boxers around my leg. I stroked his hair as he kissed my inner thigh, too consumed in what he was doing to pay much attention to anything else. There was nothing but him and the warmth of his mouth. _So hot._

     The harsh pull on my skin as he teased up a bruising mark drove me crazy. I tangled my fingers in his hair, unconsciously giving it a sharp tug. He only groaned, breath hot on my damp skin.

     “Eren...” My voice sounded foreign, high and needy.

     After he left several deep marks that glinted with saliva under the fluorescent lighting, he said, while running his fingers over them, “Mm, I want to give you more, where everyone can see it.”

     “Then give me more.” I tilted my head to the side and touched my neck. “Here.” I touched my collarbone. “And here. Anywhere you want.”

     I watched Eren’s expression change. He eyed me with hunger. “Anywhere I want?”

     “Anywhere.”

     “Lift your arms.”

     I lifted my arms and he slid my shirt up over my head. Then his mouth was on mine. Needless to say, we stopped caring if the janitor would come back or not.

    

\---

 

“We probably shouldn’t be seen together right now,” I said. We had just left the custodial room, and in ten minutes, lunch would be over.

     Eren grinned. “Why?”

     “Don’t be dumb. You know why.”

     I looked a complete mess. He’d left a good sized hickey on the side of my neck. I could feel it throbbing in time with my heartbeat. The sensation made me want to squirm around, or push him down, whichever relieved me of this ache the fastest. I had a boner that wouldn’t be dealt with anytime soon, and it was all thanks to a certain someone who wrung me up too tight without granting me any form of release.

     Blue balls, here I come!

     “You look bothered,” he said, casual as ever.

     “I am bothered!” Realizing how loud I’d said that, I darted glances around. No one was looking our way. I repeated, more softly, “I am bothered.”

     He looked far too pleased with himself, almost smug. “I can see why. I didn’t get you off back there. We ran out of time.”

     I grumbled under my breath. Then, out loud, “Just... Go turn in your homework already.” I batted at his shoulder. “Lunch is almost over.”

     “Why do you want to get rid of me? Are you heading to the bathroom after this?”

     I glared at his stupidly hot face (goddamn, that face was chiseled by Gods, I swear!), then turned on my heel and stalked off in the opposite direction. I didn’t make it far. Eren came up behind me and swept me off my feet, carrying me into an empty classroom.

     When he was sure we were alone, he said, “I’m only teasing you, Levi. I want to get you off.”

     “I know. I’m just on the verge of exploding here.”

     He chewed on his bottom lip. “I have football practice after school, so I can’t go to your place today.”

     “How about this weekend?”

     “I can’t then either. The football team is going away on some camping trip Couch Turret set up.” He suddenly brightened up. “Hey, why don’t you come with? Couch said we could bring a friend.”

     “You want me to go on a camping trip with you?”

     “I want to make you come as many times as I can out in the wilderness, yeah.”

     I blinked. “I... You...” What were words again? Was my brain supposed to provide me with them, or what? “Do you even realize what you do to me?”

     “Yeah.” He braced his arm on the wall above my head and leaned in until his face was inches away from mine. “You do the same to me.”

     “Wait, we can’t do this here. The door’s open.” Even as I said this, I leaned in closer.

     “I know.” He ran the tip of his tongue along the seam of my lips. “God, I know, I just can’t get enough of you.”

     I kissed him, the barest brush of lips, then sidestepped away from him with a teasing smile. “Go turn in your homework.”

     “Levi, wait...”

     When he tried to reach for me, I took a step back, beaming. “See you in gym class.”

     The last thing I saw before rushing out of the room was him gazing at me with feverish eyes that melted me on the spot. I wanted to go back and touch him, kiss him senseless, but we were treading in dangerous waters. Anyone could have seen us in that classroom. We were lucky no one came by. If someone had seen us, we wouldn’t have been able to explain ourselves, and rumors would’ve sparked, because that’s just how people were. They saw something they shouldn’t have and spread it around like wildfire.

     Fuck, keeping our relationship a secret would be a lot harder than I thought. Especially when we couldn’t keep our hands off each other.

     My mind was clouded, so it came as no surprise that I, once again, bumped into someone.

     “Shit, sorry,” I said, looking ahead to see none other than Armin. We both laughed. “I swear I’m not doing this on purpose.”

     “Me neither. We both seem to be distracted today.”

     “Yeah, I can’t deny that.” I looked over my shoulder, back toward the room I’d been in with Eren. “But what class do you have next? Do you need help finding it?”

     “I have gym class with Couch”—he fished out a folded piece of paper from his back pocket—“Turret. Is the gymnasium that way?” He pointed in the wrong direction.

     “No, it’s actually behind you, and I have that class too. Want to walk there together?”

     “Yeah, sure!”

     We headed toward the gym. The closer we got to it, the more fidgety Armin became.

     “You okay?” I asked.

     “Oh, yeah, I’m fine. I mean, sort of. I really hate gym class.”

     “Fair warning, Couch Turret is an asshole, so he’ll definitely make you change out on your first day, but we aren’t doing much. Running a mile, I think. Then probably doing some random sports activity, like soccer.”

     Armin looked at me in horror, eyes wide. “Change out? As in change clothes?”

     “Yeah. If you don’t have any, I can lend you some of mine.”

     “It’s not that. It’s just... Will I need to change in front of everyone?”

     “No, you don’t have to, if you don’t want to. You can change in the shower room.”

     He sagged in relief. “Okay, good. Sorry, I probably seem weird. I just don’t feel comfortable changing in front of people.”

     “I don’t think you’re weird. I’ll be changing out in the shower room too.” _Thanks to the small collection of hickeys on my inner thighs_ , I added mentally.

     When we reached the locker room, Armin stuck close to me as I pushed through a group of shirtless boys to get to my locker. The look on his face kept me from telling him that he needed to go check in with Coach Turret, that way he could get a locker assigned to him. For now, though, I’d give him the extra set of clothes I had and show him where the shower room was. Maybe after he changed, he’d feel calmer.

     I opened my locker and grabbed a pair of black basketball shorts and a white T-shirt. I turned back to Armin, who hadn’t budged since I stopped. “Are these okay?”

     “Um.” He chewed on his bottom lip. “Do you have a bigger shirt?”

     Now that he mentioned it, I noticed he was wearing baggy clothes. We were about the same size, so any of the shirts I had would fit him like they fit me: tight. I guessed that would make him uncomfortable. “I don’t, but I can ask someone if they’ll let you borrow one of their shirts.” I glanced around and the first person I spotted was Jean. We weren’t exactly friends, but we had hung out once. We weren’t complete strangers anymore. “Hey, Jean,” I called, feeling awkward when he turned around to look at me. “Do you happen to have an extra shirt Armin can borrow?”

     “Who’s Armin?” Jean asked.

     I gestured to my right, where Armin stood. “This is Armin. He’s a new student.”

     “A new student, huh?” He stepped closer to us. “Where are you from?”

     “V-vermont,” Armin said.

     Another step closer. “You’re pretty tiny. Why don’t you borrow a shirt from Levi?”

     Armin looked horrified, like he wanted the floor to open up beneath him and swallow him up whole.

     “Do you have a shirt or not?” I snapped.

     Eren showed up then, automatically sensing that something was wrong. “Hey, what’s going on?”

     “Nothing. It’s just—Do you have an extra shirt?” I asked, exasperated.

     “I was just messing with you guys, damn. I’ll lend him a shirt.” Jean grabbed a red T-shirt from his locker. He held it out to Armin. “Here, man. You can give it back to me after class.”

     Armin took it from him. It was big, much bigger than mine. He seemed pleased with that. “Thank you,” he said with a small, content smile.

     Something about that smile unarmed Jean. He looked like he’d just been sucker punched in the gut, color rising to his cheeks. MY GAY VIBES WERE TINGLING!

     “S-sure,” Jean fumbled, turning his head to the side. “Whatever.”

     Eren looked between the three of us, confused. “Am I missing something here?”

     “It’s nothing,” I said, grinning. Then I turned to Armin. “Come on. The shower room is over here. You can put your backpack in my locker for now.”

     We left Eren and Jean staring after us. As we turned the corner, hidden from view behind a row of lockers, Armin said, “Thank you for what you did for me back there. If it weren’t for you, I never would have had the courage to ask someone to lend me some clothes. I probably would’ve ended up ditching this class and getting into trouble on my first day.”

     “You don’t have to thank me. Plus, we’re friends now. I’ll always stick up for you.”

     “We’re...friends?”

     I slung my arm around his shoulders. “Yep. I’m taking you under my wing.” When he stayed quiet, I inched back. “Did I go too far?”

     “No,” Armin said in a wobbly voice, shaking his head. He sounded close to tears. “I’m happy. I didn’t have any friends back at my old school. Things were...tough.”

     I was no stranger to bullying. I understood all too well how it could wear someone down over time, both mentally and emotionally, making that person feel alienated from their peers. It wasn’t a nice thing to experience. The worst part was sometimes it felt inescapable. You saw the same people every day at school, and if some of them were intent on making you miserable, what could you do? But I wouldn’t let Armin go through that again, not alone. He’d obviously moved here for a fresh start. “Well,” I said, “you have a friend now.”

     The tears spilled over. He smiled a messy smile. “I guess I do.”   

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Armin is a trans man. This is my first time writing a transgender character, so I'm nervous and hoping I don't completely mess it up. *crossing my fingers* 
> 
> Anyway, thank you for reading! And always, thank you for the comments and kudos.


	9. Chapter 9

“I swear if you and Eren fuck inside our tent,” Farlan began, talking around a mouthful of food, “our friendship is cancelled.”

     I shot him a glare that could obliterate a small army in ten seconds flat. All it earned me was an eye roll. “Who do you think I am? I’m not losing my virginity inside some tent.” I picked up a pair of folded socks and chucked them at his face. They bounced off his forehead. I should have known he’d tease me nonstop once he found out Eren had invited me on this trip. “I’m coming on this camping trip to, you know, experience the great outdoors.”

     “Wow, really? I had no idea Eren’s dick was the great outdoors. Someone should take a note of that.”

     “Farlan Church,” I said, mouth dropping open.

     “Levi Ackerman,” he shot back without missing a beat.

     It was Friday night, and he’d come over after school to help me pack. We sat across from each other on my bedroom floor, surrounded by various piles of clothes and an open box of pizza. I couldn’t decide what to take with me. On the one hand, I wanted to pack outfits that made me look like a gourmet meal Eren couldn’t wait to sink his teeth into, but on the other hand, I knew how irrational it would be to go walking around the wilderness in the tightest jeans I owned. That’s why Farlan was here, to be the voice of reason and keep me from bringing things like yoga pants.

     “So,” he drawled as he picked up another slice of pizza, “you’re telling me you and him aren’t going to fool around at all?”

     “I mean, it’s not out of the question.” I grinned as I toyed with the black lanyard my work I.D. hung from, which had been missing for over a week. It had turned up under my bed while I’d searched for my duffle bag. “You never know, we could make good use of his sleeping bag.”

     “I did not sign up for this when we became friends ten years ago.”

     “Really now? Because I sure as hell didn’t sign up for you to eat all of the pizza. Seriously, that’s your fourth slice.”

     He bit into said slice and moaned. “It’s so good too.”

     “You know what? You owe me nine dollars and fifty-nine cents. Take a note of _that_.” Just as I went to grab a slice of my own, my cell phone rang. I patted the floor around me until I felt it under my palm, then I scooped it up, brought it to eye level, and saw that Eren was calling me. I could not accept the call fast enough. “Hello?”

     “Hey, what are you doing?”

     “I happen to be packing for the camping trip a certain someone convinced me to come on.”

     “Oh? Bringing anything interesting? Like, say, I don’t know, a pink dildo?”

     I groaned as my soul shriveled up and died within me. I needed to find a way to erase that specific memory from his brain. Plus, how could he start a conversation with that? There had to be a rule that didn’t allow him to embarrass me like this. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that, otherwise I’m going to have to hang up on you.”

     “Come on, baby. Don’t be shy. Not with me.”

     I groaned for an entirely different reason now. “Oh, god, don’t call me baby when Farlan is present. He doesn’t need to see me dying.”     

     “Farlan’s there?”

     “Yeah, he came over to help me pack.”

     “Is he spending the night?” Eren asked.

     “Mhm. We figured it would be easier that way, since he’s going to drive me to school tomorrow morning. Why?”

     “Think you can slip away for an hour? I haven’t seen much of you these last couple of days. I was hoping I could video call you. But if that can’t happen tonight—”

     “No, it can happen,” I interrupted, already standing up. I scanned my room and decided it wouldn’t be a good idea to show Eren this disaster. I’d have to take my laptop into the living room. “Just let me get set up, then I’ll call you back.”

     “Okay,” he said. Then, in a voice that made a flurry of butterflies erupt in my stomach, he added, “Don’t take too long.”

     The things he could do to me with four measly words!

     “I-I won’t.”

     “Good. I’ll talk to you soon.”

     The second he ended the call, I flung myself on my bed and snatched up my laptop. Farlan stared at me like I’d gone insane.

     “No time to explain,” I said, rolling to the floor with the laptop pressed to my chest. I had to maneuver over several stacks of clothing to get to the door, but before I could step out into the hallway, Farlan tapped on my ankle with his foot. I looked down at him.

     “If you’re going to have some weird, kinky online sex with Eren, I’m going to bed.”

     I waggled my fingers at him, smiling. “Goodnight!”

     “Friendship cancelled,” he called after me.

     When I made it to the living room, I sat down on the couch and set my laptop on the coffee table. I gave the room a quick once over to make sure everything looked in order. Thanks to my mom, it was spotless. I silently thanked her for that as I opened my laptop and turned it on, watching the screen light up blue before prompting me to enter my password. I typed it in, pressed ENTER, then took out my phone while everything loaded. There were several text messages from Eren.         

     **Eren: Add me on Skype**

**Eren: My username’s ejaeger69**

**Eren: And yeah you can laugh at me for adding 69 in there. I was 13 and impressionable when I made it.**

     I snorted at his choice of username, amused, but it cut off when I remembered my own. Oh, fuck my life! I couldn’t add him on Skype with the username _dicksarelife_. What in the world had I been thinking when I made it two years ago? And why hadn’t I changed it yet? Sure, I only ever chatted with close friends who knew I was gay and hungry for dick, but _dicksarelife?_ Really? My past-self needed to be slapped.

     **Me: I’ll add you in a minute. Just need to make some last minute changes.**

     After I sent the text, I logged into my Skype account and groaned at not only my username, but my profile picture. In it, I was flipping off the camera while wearing obnoxiously huge pink sunglasses I’d won at a county fair.

     “Kill me,” I said.

     My phone vibrated in my lap. I picked it up.

     **Eren: You are not allowed to change anything.**

**Me: Is that an order, Mr. Jaeger? Gonna spank me if I don’t listen?**

An idea came to mind. Without giving myself time to think it through, I stood up and pushed my pants down around my thighs, grateful Farlan decided to hang back in my room. I held my phone out, angled it just right, and snapped a picture of my ass—my whole ass! I sent it to Eren with the following message attached: _Go on, give my ass a spank, because I’m making some necessary changes._ It took all of five seconds for my phone to start vibrating with incoming messages. I bit down on my bottom lip and pulled my pants up, grinning as I read through them all.

     **Eren: Oh fuck**

**Eren: I’m saving that**

**Eren: And now I really want to spank you. What kind of kinks are you making me discover at 10 p.m.?**

**Eren: Shit, I don’t even care if you change everything, just hurry up and get online**

     Satisfied with that last response, I changed my profile picture and username to something more appropriate. Then, after I double checked everything, I sent Eren a friend request. He accepted it right away and a moment later the all too familiar Skype ringtone rang out. I answered the call with a click of my mouse. A few seconds passed before our webcam feeds appeared on screen. I tried to compose myself as best as I could, but all my efforts were for nothing. The second I saw Eren, sitting shirtless in his desk chair, my mouth dropped open.

     His hair was wet from a shower and pushed back in the sexiest way imaginable. A single bead of water trickled down the side of his neck, following the curve of his collarbone, moving down towards his chest. I watched it with rapt attention. When it disappeared from view, my eyes snapped back up and I noticed a knowing smile on his face. I swallowed hard.  

     “Hey,” he said in a voice that assured me he knew exactly what he was doing to me.

     “Hi.” I sounded like someone jammed a squeaky toy down my throat. So much for not embarrassing myself.

     “You’re blushing. Are you getting shy on me after you sent that kind of picture?”   

     How could I not react this way when he was sitting there shirtless and wet? Did he have any idea how hot he was? I wanted him here with me, not miles away at his house.

     “It’s easier to tease you when you’re not right in front of me,” I admitted.

     “But I’m not right in front of you. Not really.” He stretched his arms above his head and leaned to the side, showing off the defined muscles of his torso. My mouth went dry. “You want to know what was really hot about that picture?”

     “I have a feeling you’re going to tell me anyway.”

     “You’re right, I am.” He picked up his phone and stared at the screen. He licked his lips. “I can see the hickeys I gave you on the back of your thighs. They look so good.”

     Curious, I grabbed my phone, unlocked the screen, and looked at the picture I’d sent him. Sure enough, you could see the dark, bruise-like marks he’d left scattered on my inner thighs. “You left a lot,” I said.

     “I couldn’t help myself. When you told me I could leave a hickey anywhere I wanted, I got a little carried away.”

     I tilted my head down a bit and looked up into the webcam. He froze. “You like marking me that much?”

     “God, yes,” he said.

     I dragged my fingertip across the hickey he’d left on my neck. “Here?”

     “There, and anywhere else you’d let me.”

     “Anywhere I’d let you?” I looked down the hall toward my bedroom. The door was still shut. Knowing Farlan wouldn’t pop out anytime soon, I lifted my T-shirt and pointed to a spot on my chest. “Here?”

     Eren let out a frustrated groan. “Yes.”

     “Hmm”—I dragged my finger down, stopping at my stomach, right above my navel—“here, too?”

     “Levi... Anywhere you’d let me.”

     I wanted to tease him some more, to see how many buttons of his I could push, but the threat of Farlan walking out of the other room stopped me. I knew he wouldn’t go to sleep this early, and the last thing I needed was for my best friend to see me stripping to point at different parts of my body. The thought alone had me lowering my shirt in a hurry. When I was decent, I looked back at the webcam and asked, “Are you going to give me some more during this camping trip?”

     “Do you want me to give you more?”

     “Would I ask if I didn’t?”

     He dragged his hands down his face with a groan. “You’re killing me, Levi. If Farlan weren’t at your house, I would sneak out and drive over there. I want to see you so bad.”

     “You saw me earlier.”

     “Not really.”

     That was true enough. For the past two days, I hadn’t seen him at lunch and hardly spoke to him during gym class. The reason behind that was Armin. He stuck to me like glue. I didn’t mind that too much, seeing how being around other people made him anxious, but it did make it hard to hold a conversation with Eren.

     “You’re right,” I said. “We haven’t been alone since the custodial room.”

     “I know, and I hate it. I wish we could act like a normal couple. Whenever I see you at school, I have to fight the urge to go up to you and hold your hand. But maybe one day soon I won’t have to fight it.”

     My eyes popped open at that. “What?”

     “I’ve been thinking about how to break the news to my parents. I know it won’t be easy, but I can’t keep it from them forever. Not unless I want to stay miserable.”

     “I understand how you’re feeling, but don’t rush yourself, okay? Tell them when you’re ready.”

     “I know.” He sighed. “Why can’t it be easier? Why do ninety percent of parents want their sons to marry a woman, and their daughters to marry a man? Why can’t they be happy for them no matter who they bring home? Shouldn’t that be the most important thing, that their kid is actually happy?”

     “It should be, but—”

     “It’s not,” he finished.

     “Eren, are you okay?”

     He nodded. “Yeah, I’m alright. It’s just hard to deal with this sometimes. I really like you, Levi, and being with you makes me happy. Seriously, every time I think about you, I can’t stop smiling like a complete moron. I got it bad. But if my parents and friends were to find out about our relationship, they wouldn’t understand. They would think something was wrong with me, with us. They’d never look at me the same.”

     “You don’t know that for sure. Things might turn out differently.”

     “Maybe they will. Hopefully, anyway.”

     I hated seeing him like this. I wanted to reassure him that everything would work out in the end, but there was no way for me to be sure of that. From what I’d heard about his parents, they were pretty strait-laced. The kind of parents that expected their only son to follow a straight and narrow path, which is why they had molded him into the poster child for the perfect teenage son, and while it kept them happy, it made him miserable.

     Why were some parents so damn blind?

     “Hey,” I said, waiting for him to look up to continue. “You’re perfect just the way you are. I’m serious.”

     He grinned. “You’re my boyfriend. You’re supposed to say that.”

     “Not-uh. It’s not required of me.”

     The grin turned into an adorable smile. “I wish I could kiss you right now.”

     “Tomorrow you can.”

     “And I will.”

 

\---

 

The following morning, around seven o’clock, Farlan pulled into a parking space in front of the football field. There were two white vans parked near the ticket booth. Coach Turret and several other people were gathered in front of them.

     “That’s us,” Farlan said as he pushed open his door. “Ready?”

     “Yep.”

     We stepped out of his car, shut the doors, and met up at the back to grab our luggage from the trunk. As I slung the strap of my duffle bag over my shoulder, I noticed Eren leaning up against one of the vans with Jean. They were looking at something on Jean’s phone. I wondered if it would be all right to go over there, or would it be better to stick to Farlan until we reached the campsite? I still had no idea what was okay and not okay to do in these types of situations.

     Farlan knocked his shoulder against mine. When I looked up at him, he jerked his head in the direction of the other van. “Coach brought donuts. Let’s go grab one before they’re gone.”

     “You just ate like a million waffles at my house,” I said.

     “And? Your point? Who passes up a free donut?”

     I rolled my eyes as I followed him to the van, where Coach Turret had set up several boxes of donuts on the hood. There weren’t a lot left.

     “Yuck,” I said, when Farlan selected a cream filled one. Those were the nastiest of the bunch.

     “More like ‘yum.’” He bit into it with an exaggerated look of bliss on his face. What a loser.

     While he ate, I picked up a glazed twist and stepped behind him so no one could see me devour it in three bites. I was almost finished when someone poked me in the back. Surprised, I jolted and spun around with round cheeks filled with food. Eren, who smiled and pointed at the corner of his mouth, said, “You have something right here.”

     I swallowed, then scrubbed at my mouth with the back of my hand. “Don’t sneak up on me like that,” I mumbled under my breath, embarrassed. I avoided eye contact at all costs. He had a knack for showing up when I was doing something embarrassing, like stuffing my face.

     “You still have some crumbs right here.” He reached up and brushed his thumb over my lips. I leaned into his touch when I smelled his cologne on his wrist. “Wait, never mind, you got it all.”

     I blinked, coming back to myself. “You... Don’t _do_ that. What if someone saw us?”

     “No one saw.”

     Before I could make sure of that, Coach Turret clapped his hands several times to get everyone’s attention. “All right, listen up,” he said, waiting for everyone to turn his way before he carried on. “I want to make a quick announcement before we head out, so give me your undivided attention for a few minutes.” When everyone settled down, he waved someone over. A pudgy man with slicked back blonde hair came to stand beside him. Coach put a hand on his shoulder. “This is Mr. Arlert. He’s just moved here from Vermont, and he’ll be the new assistant coach of the football team. I thought this trip would be a good way for you to all get familiar with him, so be sure to make him feel welcome.”

     “I look forward to getting to know all of you,” Mr. Arlert said with a kind smile. His eyes suddenly widened, and he made a “come here” motion with his hands. A moment later, Armin appeared from behind the crowd, cheeks tinged pink with embarrassment as he took the empty spot next to Mr. Arlert, who wrapped his arm around his shoulders. “This is my son Armin. I hope you all can become friends with him during this trip.”

     Armin looked like he wanted to die. His face was so red.

     “Okay,” boomed Coach Turret, clapping some more. “Let’s get going. I want seven people in one van, and eight of you in the other. Come on. Let’s hustle. I want to make it there before nightfall.”

     Farlan shoved me in the direction of the nearest van. I took the hint and started walking toward it. Eren and Jean were right behind us. When we reached the van, I pulled open the door and we all crammed inside, shuffling to the last row. I took the seat near the window, not at all surprised when Eren slid in beside me. I smiled at him, which he returned with one of his own. We chucked our bags in the back.

     “Oh, wait,” I said, remembering Armin. I leaned forward to tap on Jean’s shoulder. He had sat in the row in front of us.

     He turned his head to look at me. “What?”

     “Can you call Armin over here? I want him to be in the same van as us.”

     “Why me?”

     “Because you’re right there by the door,” I said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

     He made a noise in the back of his throat, clearly annoyed with me, but leaned to the side and pushed open the door far enough to stick his head out. Then, “Hey, Armin! Armin! Yes, I’m talking to you. Is your name not Armin?” He shook his head with a small laugh. “Stop looking like a deer in headlights and come over here already. Levi wants you to ride with us.”

     Jean straightened in time for Armin to climb inside the van with an expression of doubt on his face. Then he caught sight of me and the look disappeared.

     “Hey!” I waved.

     “Hey, I didn’t know you’d be here.”

     “Right back at you.”

     “I only came because of my dad. He insisted that I come along to meet new people.” Armin grinned and plopped down in the spot next to Jean. His brain seemed to catch up with his actions, because his eyes widened as they darted to the boy sitting beside him. “I-is okay if I sit here? If you want, I can move.” There weren’t any other empty seats. Where would he move to?

     Jean shrugged. “I don’t care if you sit there.”

     “Really? I’m glad,” Armin said, donning a smile that could brighten the darkest night.

     Like before, Jean seemed to come undone when he saw that smile. He stared for a moment too long, then turned away in a rush, stuffing his hand into his front pocket and pulling out his phone. But once in a while, when he thought no one was looking, his eyes drifted back to Armin.

     My heart couldn’t handle this!

     I wanted to keep tabs on them, but then Mr. Arlert slid into the driver’s seat. He turned around and said, “Okay, buckle up, we’re heading out.”

     Eren didn’t buckle up. Instead, he wiggled his hand behind my back and tucked it into my pocket.

     “You’re crazy,” I mouthed.

     “I’m crazy about you,” he mouthed back.

     Here we were in the back of a van filled with his teammates, and he had a handful of ass. How ridiculous. He wasn’t even trying to be subtle anymore. We were going to get caught, yet, despite the risk, I couldn’t stop smiling.

     I leaned in close to him and whispered, “Are you throwing caution to the wind?”

     He looked at me and said, very seriously, “Yes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to put the meme where the woman is darting glances around, looking confused with math equations all around, because that's how I feel whenever I try to write end notes. Like? I forget everything I planned on saying. Omfg, but I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. As usual, it was late af. OOF! I'm sorry. 
> 
> Thanks for the comments and kudos! I love you guys, seriously. <3


	10. Chapter 10

After three hours on the road, Mr. Arlert pulled into a gas station in some remote town we were passing through. He parked next to a pump, turned around in his seat to face us, and said, “If any of you need to use the restroom, now’s the time to do it. The campsite is about an hour from here, so we won’t be stopping again until then.” He looked at us with an expectant expression on his face. We sat there in silence and waited for him to give us the go ahead to get out. “Okay, if none of you have any questions, I’ll let you go do your business. Let’s meet back here in twenty minutes.” With that, he pushed open the driver’s side door and hopped out, scurrying across the parking lot toward the convenience store.

     Eren groaned. “I never want to listen to another country song in my life. I can’t believe he listened to the same station the whole way. And did you see how fast he was walking just now? Think he was prairie dogging it?”

     “Shh,” I hissed, smacking his thigh. I leaned forward to peek at Armin, but there was no need to worry about him overhearing anything. He’d fallen asleep somewhere along the way. With the hood of his blue jacket pulled over his head, and his chin tucked into his chest, he didn’t stir, even when Farlan threw open the door and let in a gust of cold air.

     “Should we leave him here?” I asked no one in particular.

     “What if he has to take a piss?” That came from Jean, who stifled a yawn with his hand.

     “Then wake him up.”

     He eyed me. “Again you’re asking me?”

     “Stop making a big deal out of nothing. I’ll do it,” Farlan said. He poked Armin’s cheek. “Hey, wake up. We stopped.” Another poke, this time on the forehead. “Heeeeyyy!”

     “Stop poking him.” Jean slapped Farlan’s hand away. “Why are you getting involved? No one even asked you.”

     “You’re the one that didn’t want to wake him up.”

     “I never said I wouldn’t. I’ll do it, just go.”

     Farlan shrugged, unbothered, and stepped out of the van without another word. Several of the other boys followed suit.

     I scooted over on the bench seat, ready to wake Armin up myself, but then Jean gave his shoulder a gentle shake. He did it once more and Armin’s eyes slowly opened.

     Armin yawned, and in a sleep-raspy voice, asked, “Are we here?” He sat up from his slouched position and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands.

     Jean looked lost, like he hadn’t been expecting to have an actual conversation. He opened his mouth, didn’t say a word, then cleared his throat and croaked, “We stopped at a gas station. Uh, your dad said we should use the restroom if we need to.”

     “Oh okay.” Armin flashed him a lazy smile. “Thanks for waking me up. I need to stretch my legs out.”

     “It’s, uh—It’s no big deal.”

     “Let’s get out of here already,” Eren said. “We only have twenty minutes, remember?”

     Jean waved his hand in dismissal. “Yeah, yeah.”

     We filed out of the van one at a time, then tramped up to the automatic sliding doors of the Mini Mart. I stuffed my hands into my pockets. It was cold out, much colder than it was back home. To think I only packed one pair of sweats to last me for the next three days. If it was as cold at the camping site as it was here, I would end up wearing them throughout the entire trip.

     “Cold?” Eren asked as he tapped my bare arm, bringing my attention back to him.

     “I’m fine.”

     “Really? You have goosebumps.”

     “Really,” I insisted. “I have a jacket in my duffle bag. I’ll get it when we go back to the van.”

     “How about you wear mine?”

     I glanced at him, unsure if he was being serious or not. He looked serious enough. “I can’t wear your jacket.”

     “I’m pretty sure you can.” He slipped out of his letterman jacket and draped it over my shoulders. I would have protested if it wasn’t so warm. “See? You’re wearing it.”

     “What will you do if someone asks you why you lent me your jacket? No one knows about our situation other than Farlan.”

     He grabbed my hand and coaxed my right arm into the sleeve. It took some effort, but he managed it. “No one will ask, but if they do, I’ll tell them that my hot boyfriend was cold, so I let him wear my jacket.”

     “You will not.”

     “You’re right. I’ll say, ‘My boyfriend looks so cute in my jacket, I couldn’t help but stuff him into it.’ No, seriously, you’re making me stuff you into it. Feel free to cooperate at any time.”

     With a roll of my eyes, I slipped my left arm into the other sleeve and said, “You really are throwing caution to the wind, aren’t you?”

     He looked ahead to make sure no one was paying attention to us, then kissed me on the top of the head. I loved that he was tall enough to do that without making me bend forward. “Just a bit for now.” He looped his finger through the bracelet on my wrist, the one he’d made me. He tugged on it to pull me closer. The tip of his finger traced odd shaped circles on my skin. “If it bothers you, I’ll stop.”

     “Are you kidding me?” I bonked him on the head with my fist. He laughed, so I added a couple more hits for good measure. “It doesn’t bother me.” Although I was a little worried that someone might see us like this. I still wanted him to come out on his own terms. If someone noticed us getting handsy, that choice would be taken from him, and that’s the last thing I wanted to happen. No one deserved to be outed against their will. To be forced into that situation would be unimaginably painful and terrifying. I never wanted Eren to experience that, so I needed to be careful for the both of us. 

     “Good,” he said, showing me a small, shy smile that was completely new to me. I wanted to kiss that smile a million times.

     To avoid temptation—I wanted to kiss him _so_ badly—I steered us down the aisle where the others had gathered. Farlan had accumulated a crazy amount of snacks for only having been in the store for three minutes, from a family size bag of chips to a sleeve of Oreos. When he caught me openly staring at him, he said, “Don’t start with me. I haven’t eaten in three hours.”

     “What are you talking about? I wasn’t going to say anything.”

     “Liar. You’re always getting on me for eating too much junk food.”

     I gestured to the immense pile of junk food in his arms. “This is proof that you eat too much junk food.” I spotted a bag of strawberry marshmallows stuffed under his arm. They were on top of a mini jar of Nutella, among other things. “Really, Farlan? Marshmallows and Nutella, too? Do you really need all that?”

     “You know what... Bye,” was all he said before he made a beeline to the front counter to pay for his load of crap.

     Jean, who had just tore open a bag of Skittles, said, “Let’s go get something to drink before Farlan clears out the rest of the store.”

     As we walked to the back of the store, Eren leaned in close and asked, “What do you want to drink?”

     “Hmm, hot chocolate.”

     “I’ll buy it for you.”

     “You don’t have to.”

     He pinched my ass when no one was looking. “I want to.”

     When we turned toward the coffee station, I spotted Armin down on all fours, mopping up spilt coffee with a handful of napkins. It was dripping down from the counter where the hot beverage dispensers were lined up.

     “Are you okay?” I knelt down beside him, put a hand on his shoulder, and noticed how he flinched. His right hand was covered in bright red splotches. They weren’t hard to miss. Against his fair skin, they stood out. “Holy shit. Did you burn yourself?”

     He looked close to tears as he said, “It’s nothing. I dropped my coffee, that’s all.”

     I almost believed him, but then I caught sight of the group of boys gathered a few feet behind him. They weren’t from our school, so that meant they were locals, and judging by the way they were chuckling under their breaths, they had something to do with this. I gritted my teeth. “Did those guys do this to you?”

     “No. They bumped into me, but I think it was an accident. I-it’s okay. Really, Levi, it’s okay.”

     Fuck that. It was _not_ okay.

     I stood up, furious, but before I could say anything, Jean stormed past me and yelled, “Why the fuck are you laughing? Did you do that?”

     One of the guys put both his hands up, but that infuriating smirk on his face never faltered. All he said was, “Whoops. Guess I better watch where I’m going next time.”

     “I’m going to shove that ‘whoops’ straight up your ass.” Jean curled his hand into a fist and went to throw a punch, but Eren intervened by stepping between them. He put his hands on Jean’s shoulders and eased him back a few steps. I don’t know what would have happened next if Mr. Arlert hadn’t shown up right then. Jean looked angry enough to murder someone.

     “What’s going on here?” Mr. Arlert asked in an authoritative tone, then his gaze landed on Armin kneeling on the floor, and his eyes widened in fear. He rushed over to him. “Oh, God, your hand. What happened to your hand?” His head whipped in our direction. He looked at each and every one of us. “Who did this?”

     The guy Jean confronted turned back to his group and said, “Let’s go.”

     I shook with the effort to not stop them from leaving, but I knew keeping them around would cause unnecessary problems. Still, when they walked past me, I glared daggers at them. They looked amused by it.

     “Fuckers,” I muttered.

     Mr. Arlert wrapped an arm around Armin’s shoulders and helped him to his feet. “We need to cool the burn. Let’s go to the restroom and run your hand under cold water.”

     “Dad, no, it’s fine.”

     “Armin...”

     “I can’t go to the restroom,” Armin said, almost pleading.

     I couldn’t understand what he meant by that. Did he not like public restrooms?

     My attention was drawn to Jean when he started filling a plastic cup with ice. He set it down on the counter, grabbed an ice cube from the top, and went up to Armin. “Here, this should work,” he said as he pressed the ice to Armin’s injured hand. He rubbed it over the burns. “Now you don’t have to go to the restroom.”

     Armin looked at him like the sun had emerged after countless cloudy days. “Thank you.”

     “It’s no big deal.”

     With a giggle, Armin said, “You say that a lot.”

     Jean froze as color bloomed in his cheeks. He turned his head so fast, I’m surprised he didn’t snap his neck. “That should be good enough, but I would buy some ointment if I were you.”

     “I’ll do that.”

     “Well...” Jean suddenly snatched Eren by the arm. “See you back at the van.”

     “Hey, wait,” Eren said, but Jean was tugging on him hard. “I want to buy a drink.”

     “Levi can get it for us. Right, Levi? We’ll pay you back.”

     I shook my head, amused by how obvious he was being. “I’ll get the drinks.” Once they were out of sight, I put my hand on Armin’s shoulder. “Go get some ointment. I’ll get you another coffee.”

     “Are you sure?”

     “Yes, now go take care of that hand,” I said, waving him off towards one of the aisles. Mr. Arlert grinned as he led him away, but the look of worry returned to his face a moment later. As they went in search of the items they needed, I wondered what Armin had gone through at his last school. It obviously had reached a point where his parents felt the need to move away. Had he been bullied that badly? And for what? Although I was curious about what had happened, I knew it wasn’t my place to ask him. We’d just met.  

     Alone with my thoughts, I grabbed four paper cups and placed one under the coffee dispenser. I pushed the button and left it there to fill up while I filled the other three with hot chocolate. I was in the middle of snapping lids onto them when Farlan showed up.

     “Eren sent me,” he explained before I could ask him anything. He picked up two of the hot chocolates. “He seemed worried about his boyfriend having to carry all the drinks by himself.”

     “Don’t exaggerate.”

     “I’m being serious here. He begged me to come help you. Practically got down on his knees.”

     I punched him on the arm. “Are you planning to tease me throughout this entire trip?”

     “I don’t know. Maybe.” He laughed when I scowled at him. Then, in a serious voice, he said, “He really likes you.”

     Surprised, I fumbled with one of the lids, almost knocking over Armin’s coffee. When I steadied it, I stared at the floor as I asked, “What makes you say that?”

     “It’s the way he talks about you. Not to mention the stupid smile he gets on his face whenever I bring you up.” He nudged me with his elbow. “It’s love.”

     “Stop.” My entire face felt red hot. If he continued, I’d burst a vein or go into cardiac arrest. Probably both.

     “All right, I’ll stop. Let’s go pay for these. Our twenty minutes is almost up.”

     Grateful that he steered the conversation in a different direction, I scooped up the two remaining cups and followed him down an empty aisle to the front counter. We paid for the drinks before making our way outside. When we reached the van, and one of the boys pushed open the back door for us, I realized we didn’t have to worry about running late. Mr. Arlert and Armin still weren’t back.  

     As Farlan passed the drinks he’d carried to Jean, I crouch-walked to the back of the van. “Here you go,” I said in a cheery voice while I slipped one of the cups in between Eren’s thighs, right up against his crotch. He looked down at it, then back up at me. I flashed him an innocent smile.

     “Why do I have two?” Jean asked, holding up the paper cups to show what he was talking about.

     “Oh, that reminds me... Switch with me.” I handed him Armin’s coffee and took the hot chocolate.

     “How did that help?” He brought Armin’s cup closer to his face and sniffed at it. “Is this coffee? Whose is this?”

     I smiled. “It’s Armin’s.”

     “Like I care that it’s his,” he grumbled under his breath, but after that, he carefully tucked Armin’s drink between his legs.

     I leaned back in my seat and took a sip of my hot chocolate, content. Then my phone vibrated in my back pocket, so I fished it out and peered down at the screen.

     **Eren: Scoot closer**

     **Me: No can do. You have to keep your hands to yourself.**

     Once I sent it, I turned my eyes to Eren and almost lost it when he read the text. He looked so hurt.

     **Me: Stop with the face**

**Eren: I’ll stop if you take off my jacket and lay it over your lap**

     Nothing good would come of this, but even with that thought in mind, I found myself slipping out of his jacket and draping it over my lap. A moment later, he slid his hand under it and grabbed my hand. He laced his fingers through mine. Everything in me tingled, alive with want. I couldn’t understand how something so simple could make me feel like this. Up until two weeks ago, I thought it was impossible to want Eren more than I already did, but here I was, aching for him in an unfamiliar way. I just wanted him. All of him.

     I picked up my phone and sent him another text.

     **Me: People will notice**

     It took him a while to text me back, since he was using his non-dominant hand. It was kind of amusing to see him tap on his phone screen with one finger.

     **Eren: Don’t care. I want to hold your hand.**

**Eren: Squeeze once if that’s okay**

     Stupidly happy, I squeezed his hand.

 

\---

 

It took longer than expected to reach the campsite, which was a deserted stretch of land somewhere out in the mountains, near an abandoned gold mine. The first thing Coach Turret had us do after we found a suitable area to set up camp at was to unload the vans. There was a lot of stuff to unpack. It took half an hour to finish. By then, everyone was ready to relax, but Coach had other plans for us. He clapped his hands—like he always did—to get our attention.

     “Look alive! We still have to assemble the tents.”

     “Aw, Coach, come on,” one of the boys groaned in dismay as he threw himself back onto a pile of sleeping bags. I think his name was Connie. “Can’t we take a break?”

     “I’m afraid not,” Coach said. “Let’s get a move on! The sooner we have those tents up, the sooner we can call it a day. Form groups and get started.”

     Jean pointed to Eren. “You’re in my group. And so are you guys.” He pointed to me and Farlan next. “And you too.” His finger flicked over to Armin, who looked surprised, but was quick to nod in agreement. “Okay, let’s go grab the supplies.”

     “Aye aye, Captain Kirstein,” Eren said with a laugh. Jean flipped him off.

     Never in my life had I assembled a tent, so when Jean came back and laid everything out in the grass, I stood there like a fish out of water. I picked up a thin pole and stared at it for a good minute before Farlan took it from me.

     “Lay this out,” he said, handing me something that looked like a tarp. “It’s a ground cloth. It goes under the tent.”

     “Okay?”

     He stared at me for half a second. “You can lay it out, right?”

     “Yes! I’m capable of that much. I just didn’t know it was called a ground cloth.” I turned away from him, peeved, and ignored his laughter as I unfolded the tarp. The fabric billowed in the wind, making it hard to lay it out flat. I cursed silently, but vehemently.

     “I got it,” Armin said when he noticed me struggling. He grabbed onto the other side of the tarp and stretched it out on the ground. “I think we’re supposed to pin it down so it doesn’t shift around.”

     We raised our heads and stared at each other. It was obvious that none of us knew what the hell we were doing.

     “Um,” I started, “I have no idea what we’re supposed to use to pin it down.”

     “Neither do I.”

     I laughed. “Wow, this is kind of embarrassing.”

     “I know. Let’s just pretend like we know what we’re doing until someone comes and helps us out.”

     In the end, Jean, Eren, and Farlan took over. Armin and I were asked to fetch the sleeping bags, but with such an easy task, I was pretty sure Jean just wanted us to feel useful—or at least for Armin to feel useful. Which reminded me of what had happened back at the convenience store. How could I bring that up without making Armin suspicious?

     I decided to wing it.

     “So, what do you think about Jean?” I asked in a casual tone. At least I hoped it sounded casual.

     Armin stopped digging through the pile of sleeping bags to look at me. “He’s really nice.”

     That’s it? That’s all he was giving me? I was expecting something a little more...gay.

     “Why do you ask?”

     I shrugged. “Just wondering.”

     We went back to searching for our sleeping bags, but then Armin said, in a small, almost nonexistent voice, “He’s cute.”

     I froze, then, “I knew it!”

     “Shh, keep your voice down.” He giggled as he darted glances around. When he was sure no one was eavesdropping, he added, “So, um, you swing that way too?”

     “Definitely,” I said.

     “You and Eren?”

     My eyes widened. “Shit. Was it that obvious?”

     “No, no, don’t worry. Just subtle things here and there. Plus, my gaydar was going off.”

     “I can say the same for you.”

     We laughed, kindred spirits, but it was cut short when we saw Eren and Jean heading our way. We composed ourselves.

     “You guys are taking forever,” Jean said the second we were within earshot. He picked up a blue sleeping bag and tossed it over his shoulder. “I found mine already.” He looked at Armin. “How’s your hand?”

     “Oh, it’s fine.”

     “You’re a bad liar. Point out your sleeping bag. I’ll carry it back to the tent for you.”

     Armin and I exchanged knowing looks. We smiled to ourselves.

     “It’s that one,” he said, gesturing to a green sleeping bag.

     Jean knelt, looped his arm around it, then straightened up. He jerked his head toward the tent. “Come on.”

     After they left, I smiled at Eren.

     “What’s that smile for?” he asked.

     I shook my head and smiled wider, feeling light and happy. When he reached out, and our fingertips met for a brief moment, it was just Eren and me. Nothing in the world but Eren and me.

     “I like you,” I whispered, a secret.

     He smiled and whispered back, “I like you, too.”  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fluff and more fluff? Check and check! They deserve it.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I received so many nice comments on the last chapter. My heart is full.  
> [](https://imgbb.com/)

Our group stood back as Coach Turret knelt beside the tent we assembled to examine our handiwork. He tilted his head to the side, pursed his lips, and took hold of the metal peg that held down the front left side. He gave it a sharp tug and nodded in approval when it remained deep in the ground. That was the last one he needed to check. “Good,” he said, satisfied with the outcome. He stood up and both his knees popped. None of us dared to comment on it. How could we when he shot us a glare that warned us to keep our mouths shut? “Your tent passes inspection,” he carried on. “Who hammered those pegs in?”

     “That would be me,” Eren said.

     Coach clapped him on the shoulder. “Well done, Jaeger. Now that that’s finished, let’s build ourselves a campfire. We need to get started on tonight’s dinner.”

     He walked off and started hollering orders to the boys lazing around.

     “We passed inspection!” Armin said with a smile. “Well, it’s thanks to you guys. Me and Levi didn’t do much.”

     “Hey, we spread the...” I snapped my fingers, trying to remember the name of the tarp we laid out. When I couldn’t think of it, I started pointing to the ground.

     “The ground cloth,” Farlan deadpanned.

     “That’s it! The ground cloth! We spread that out.”

     Farlan clapped, nice and slow for dramatic effect. “Bravo. What would we do without you guys? You really came through for us by spreading that ground cloth out like pros.”

     “Two words,” I said, sensing his sarcasm. “Fuck you.”

     He slung his arm around my neck and tugged me to his side. “I love you, too. Now let’s go see what Coach plans to cook up for us. I’m starving.”

     “You’re always starving.”

     As he dragged me away, I looked back and caught Eren staring at me. There was something about his expression that made me want to tease him. So, with a little grin, I blew him a kiss. He pretended to catch it and winked at me as he tucked my imaginary kiss into his front pocket.

     “Holy shit,” I mumbled under my breath, turning my head away. I hadn’t been prepared for that. My _heart_ hadn’t been prepared for that. It was beating hard and fast. “Holy shit,” I repeated, with more feeling.  

     “Calm down,” Farlan said, “before you pop a boner in front of everybody.”

     I scoffed. “Like I’d get hard standing next to you.”

     “Are you saying I’m not good enough to get hard for?”

     I looked him up and down. “Nope. Sorry. I’m limper than a cooked noodle.”

     “You’re an asshole.”

     “D’aw, did I hurt your feelings,” I teased.

     “As if you could hurt my feelings with that. I’ve known for the past five years that you’re strictly Erensexual.” He unwound his arm from around my neck to race ahead of me. He turned around and started walking backwards. “Hey, now that you’re dating him, I feel it’s my responsibility to show him some embarrassing pictures of you, like the one where you’re pretending to give a statue head. Remember that?” He laughed. “Those were good times.”

     “Don’t you dare show him that. I was five percent drunk that night.”

     He laughed harder. “You had one swig of coconut rum. You were not drunk.”

     “Okay, you really want to play this game with me? I have embarrassing pictures of you too. And if you show Eren that picture, I will not hesitate to show Isabel that photo you sent me on Snapchat. The one where you have toilet paper shoved up your nose because you were sick.”

     He stopped walking. “You saved that?”

     “Yep.”

     “Damn, okay, truce. I won’t show Eren.”

     Smug, I said, “That’s what I thought.”

     We found Coach Turret and the other group of boys standing near one of the tents. Coach was in the middle of giving out instructions.

     “We need three things for a campfire,” he roared, like we weren’t all standing five feet away from him. “Those three things are: tinder, kindling, and fuel wood. If you couldn’t guess, I want you to form three groups. The first group will gather some tinder. I’m talking anything from dry leaves to dry bark. The second group will find us some kindling. You know, things like small twigs and branches. The last group of you will be with me. We’re going to be looking for some fuel wood. Pick up branches that are no wider than your forearm. Do you guys understand what’s expected of you?” We all nodded our heads. “Good! Let’s pick up the pace and get things done. That way we can eat.”

     Farlan and I joined up with someone named Reiner to look for material we could use for tinder. Since there were only three of us, it was slow going at first, but after Jean, Armin, and Eren came, we were able to gather enough bark to get Coach off our backs. That is until he told us to help the other groups.

     “Do you think there are any snakes out here?” Armin asked as he poked and prodded at a lump of dead grass with a stick he’d picked up.

     “Well yeah,” Jean said. “There’s all types of shit out here.”

     “Oh.” Armin inched closer to him, all while keeping a close watch on the ground.

     “You’ll be fine. Most things run away at the sight of humans.”

     Despite Jean’s reassurances, Armin couldn’t relax. If he heard something that sounded suspicious—a twig snapping, or something rustling through the bushes—he would get so close to Jean, you’d think they were glued together.

     “We’re almost done,” I told him, bending over to pick up a fallen branch. When I moved it, something the size of my fist scurried out and ran across my foot. I let out a shriek that had the power to deafen people. _“What the fuck was that?”_

     “What?” Eren pulled me behind him as he scanned our surroundings. “I don’t see anything.”

     I pointed to the bushes in front of us. “I think it went in there. It looked like a rat.”

     “A rat?” Armin hollered.

     “Okay, let’s calm down,” Farlan said, levelheaded. “It’s not going to do anything to us.”

     Armin took a deep breath. “You’re right. It won’t.”

     “Still,” I said. “Let’s hurry this up.”

     I stuck to Eren like my life depended on it. I wasn’t a wuss, not really, but a rat? A RAT? That wasn’t something I wanted to deal with. They carried diseases and fleas...

     Ugh, I couldn’t think about it.

     “Hey, you can relax. I’m keeping an eye out for you.” Eren tapped my palm to get my attention, then traced my life line until his fingertip grazed over the vein in my wrist, where he could feel my pulse. Everywhere he touched, my skin prickled with undulating warmth. “Your heart’s beating so fast. Is that because you’re afraid of the rat showing up again?” Leaning in, he added in a whisper, “Or is that because of me?”

     “Stupid,” I said, too breathy to be taken as a serious insult.

     “That doesn’t answer my question.”

     I turned and gazed at him. The sun was sinking beneath the western horizon and it transformed him where he stood. Rays of light cut across his face in the most mesmerizing way, illuminating his eyes to a shade of green I’d never seen before. He looked like an oil painting come to life, almost ethereal, and I had the strongest urge to capture him looking exactly like that.

     “Don’t move,” I said.

     Without question, he stayed still, but when he saw me taking out my phone, the most beautiful smile broke across his face.

     “Unreal,” I said, unlocking my phone screen and tapping on the camera icon. I held it up and snapped several pictures of him. “You’re unreal.”

     “What’s unreal?” Jean asked.

     I jumped out of my skin at the sound of his voice, nearly dropping my phone. I’d forgotten about everyone else. “The sunset!” I practically screamed. I cleared my throat and said more calmly, “The sunset is unreal.”

     He shrugged, unimpressed by it, before turning to Eren. “I think we have enough branches now. Let’s go back to camp.”

     Farlan and Armin followed him as he walked past me, but not before they both shot me a knowing look. I hid my face, embarrassed that I’d almost been caught gawking at my boyfriend.

     “They’re gone,” Eren said after a while.

     “Good.”

     “That is good.” He stepped up to me, a silhouette against the orange sunlight, and tugged on the end of my sleeve. I looked up. “I haven’t kissed you in days. I need to recharge.”

     “Recharge now, then.”

     He kissed me. It started out as a spark, a flicker of light, then it caught fire and burned brighter and brighter, until the world consisted of nothing but his lips against mine. When we broke apart, he pressed our foreheads together and let out a shaky breath. That had been the type of kiss that would take days—weeks, even—to recover from. I wanted to preserve it in my memory, like a pressed flower between the pages of one of my favorite books.

     “That felt different,” he whispered.

     “What did it feel like?”

     He stayed quiet long enough to make me think he wasn’t going to say anything at all. Then, while he eased his hand beneath the back of my shirt, his fingertips mapping out the small bumps of my spine, he said, “That’s a secret.”

 

\---

 

Coach Turret spent too long showing us how to build a campfire. He went on and on about the importance of selecting a bare area away from any trees and bushes, that way there was less risk of starting a wildfire. Then he demonstrated how to lay a teepee fire with the materials we gathered earlier. By the time he passed out skewers and hot dogs—hot dogs on a stick, really?—I was too exhausted and cold to move from the spot I’d been in for the past half hour. All I wanted to do was crawl into my sleeping bag and warm up.

     “Here,” Farlan said, handing me a hot dog he’d already poked through with a metal skewer.

     I took it with reluctance. “This is too American for me.”

     “Levi, you are American.”

     “Still,” I said as I thrust the hot dog into the flames. How long would I have to keep it in there? I’d never cooked anything over an open fire before.

     “You’re going to burn it that way.” Eren grabbed my wrist and brought it back until the hot dog was a couple of inches away from the fire. “There. Now all you have to do is turn it so it can cook evenly.”

     I turned the skewer and watched the hotdog rotate. “Like that?”

     “Yeah, exactly like that.”

     Proud of myself, I sat up straighter and puffed out my chest, then Jean said, “Are you five?” and I deflated.

     “Leave him alone,” snapped Eren.

     Jean snickered. “Calm down, jeez. I was kidding.”

     Before Eren could say anything else, Armin gasped loud enough to draw our attention away from Jean. We all looked at him and saw that his hot dog had fallen into the fire, next to a thick tree branch.

     “Crap,” he said, sheepish. “I don’t know how that happened.”

     “Don’t worry about it. You can have one of mine.” Jean picked up a cooked hot dog he’d set off to the side. He held it out to him.

     “Oh, no, that’s okay. You don’t have to give me one of yours. I’m not even that hungry.”

     “Like I’d believe that. We’re all starving.” He didn’t wait around for Armin to accept the food he’d offered him. He put the hot dog on one of the paper plates Mr. Arlert had handed out and set it in Armin’s lap. “Just eat it.”

     Armin grinned. “Let me guess, ‘It’s no big deal?’”

     “That’s right, so eat up.”

     None of us said anything else on the matter, but I could tell by the look on Eren’s face that he was starting to question why Jean was always being so kind to Armin. He hadn’t put two and two together yet. Hell, Jean probably hadn’t even put two and two together yet, but I sure had. There was no heterosexual explanation for this. Jean was in gay territory now.

     “Hey,” Farlan said, flicking me on the forehead, “pay attention to your hot dog.”

     I snapped to attention and pulled the skewer away from the flames. The hot dog was a little on the burnt side, but I was hungry enough not to mind.

     “Do you want a hot dog bun?” Eren asked.

     “Mhm.”

     He picked up the bag of buns from the ground and twisted the tie off. He slid one out and passed it to me. After that, we didn’t talk too much. I was too hungry and sleepy to keep a conversation going.

     “I’m tired,” I whined while I chewed.

     Farlan stared at me. “It’s only eight something.”

     “Does it look like I care what time it is? I need sleep.”

     “I’m pretty tired myself,” Armin said.

     “We’re all beat,” Coach boomed. He stood up and brushed dirt off the backside of his jeans. “Once everyone’s done eating, we’re turning in for the night. We have a busy day tomorrow, so expect to be woken up at the crack of dawn.” Everyone groaned in unison. “I’ll have none of that. Why do you think we came out here? To have nothing but fun? Well, I hate to break it to you, but we came out here to train. Now finish up. I’m giving you fifteen more minutes before I put out the fire.”

     When he disappeared inside his tent, I stuffed the rest of my food into my mouth. If I was going to be woken up at dawn, despite not being a part of the football team, then I was going to get as much sleep as possible.

     “You heading to bed?” Eren said.

     I turned towards him with round cheeks. He poked at one. I scrunched my nose and batted his hand away. “Yesh,” I responded, mouth full.

     “Yesh?” He smiled wide enough for both his dimples to appear. He looked like he was about to laugh.

     “Don’t shaugh!”

     “I can’t help it. You’re fucking cute.”

     I _hmph_ ed, swallowed the food in my mouth, and crossed my arms. “I’m not cute.”

     “You really are.”

     “Nope. Wrong.”

     He pressed his finger between my brows and smoothed out the wrinkle there. “I’m right. Don’t be grumpy.”

     “I’m not being grumpy.”

     “You are.”

     “He’s always like this when he’s sleepy,” Farlan said, throwing his arm around my shoulders. “A big ole grump. Right, Levi?”

     I shoved his arm away with a curse, grumbling a few more under my breath. “I’m not a grump.”

     They both laughed at my pouty expression. In response, the pout turned into a scowl, but that only made them laugh harder.

     Okay, I’d had enough of this for one night.

     “I’m going to bed.” I got to my feet, spun around, and walked to our tent. The flap had been left rolled up, so I stepped inside without stopping and sank to my knees to crawl to my sleeping bag. I had half a mind to climb inside without taking off my shoes, or brushing my teeth, but then I thought about what I’d told Farlan yesterday. _You never know, we could make good use of his sleeping bag._ Shit, I couldn’t go to sleep with hot dog breath. Not when there was a chance Eren could pay me a late night visit.

     With newfound energy, I dragged my duffel bag in front of me and unzipped the main compartment. I moved aside clothes, sunscreen, and bug repellent before I uncovered the cheap toothbrush I’d bought just for this trip.

     “Are you mad?”

     “Holy fuck,” I shrieked, jerking back. Eren was standing in the tent opening. “You scared the shit out of me.”

     “Sorry.”

     When my heart stopped beating like it wanted to burst out of my chest, I patted the spot next to me. He came and sat behind me.

     “I’m not mad,” I said.

     He nudged my shoulder with his head, like a scolded puppy asking for forgiveness. It was too cute. “You sure?”

     “I’m sure. I’m just tired.”    

     “And grumpy?”

     I knocked him on the head. “Don’t push your luck.”

     “I’ll stop.” He gazed at my toothbrush. “I have a couple bottles of water in my bag. You can use one to brush your teeth.”

     “You should use one too.”

     “Oh?”

     “You’re using one,” I said. “I’m not kissing you with hot dog breath.”

     He perked up. “You’re planning on kissing me?”

     “Dummy.” I knocked him on the head again, so I could get the message across. “After everyone’s asleep, I’m sneaking into your sleeping bag. You better leave it unzipped for me.”

     Without giving me a response, he went and grabbed his bag. He rummaged through it, pulling out two bottles of water, his toothbrush, and a travel size tube of toothpaste.

     “Let’s go,” he said.

     I followed him out of the tent without asking him where he planned on taking me. We wound our way through the group of boys still sitting around the campfire and headed in the direction of one of the vans, away from sight. When we reached it, he parked himself on the back bumper and held out a bottle of water. Taking it, I sat down beside him.

     “It’s freezing out here,” I said, setting the bottle between my feet.

     “It’ll get worse overnight.” He passed me the toothpaste. “Coach should have told us to pack warmer clothes.”  

     I flicked open the cap and squeezed some onto the bristles of my toothbrush. “I only brought one pair of sweatpants. Guess I’ll have to rely on you to keep me warm, then.”

     “Don’t tempt me. We won’t be able to do much without risking waking someone up.”

     “Are you sure about that? I can think of one thing we can do that wouldn’t wake up a soul.” I clenched my hand into a fist and raised it to my mouth, moving it back and forth in time with pressing my tongue against the inside of my cheek.

     Eren got the hint.

     “A blowjob?” he hissed, eyes going wide.

     Feigning innocence, I shrugged and said, “Maybe. You’ll have to wait and see, now won’t you?”

     “God, if I could fast forward time, I would.”

     I smiled, amused by his reaction, but it vanished when the truth of what I’d just said sank in.

     A blowjob? _A blowjob?_

     Aside from the things I had done with him, I had zero experience. A blowjob seemed simple enough, but what if I messed it up somehow? I mean, there was always the possibility of nicking him with my teeth. And if that happened, not only would it destroy the mood, but I’m pretty sure Eren wouldn’t let me near his dick for the rest of the trip. Could I take that chance?

     Shit, shit, on top of more shit!

     But still... Despite the risk of scraping his goods, the thought of giving him head was too tempting to pass up. I couldn’t back out now. Opportunities like this didn’t happen every day. I had to take the bull by the horns; seize the moment! If I didn’t, I would regret it.

    With my mind made up, I finished brushing my teeth. All that was left to do now was rinse out my mouth, so I spat out a mouthful of toothpaste and reached for the bottled water Eren had given me. He placed it in my hand when he saw me scrambling around for it.

     “Thanks,” I said, unscrewing the lid.          

     “You seem like you’re in a hurry.”

     I grinned. “Does it? Maybe I am.”

     He considered what I’d said, connected the dots, then started brushing his teeth like his life depended on it. It was a good thing he rushed, too, because Coach decided to come stomping out of his tent right then, ordering everyone to line up so he could take a head count. We gathered our stuff and hurried over there, barely making it in time to not be missed.

     “Listen up,” Coach began, after he made sure everyone was here. “For your own safety, I don’t want any of you out of your tents until morning. If you need to relieve yourself, do it right outside your tent.”

     “Even if we need to sh—poop?” Connie asked.

     “You can hold it in until morning, can’t you, Springer?”

     Connie shrugged. “I guess.”

     Coach resumed where he’d left off. “If any of you are caught wandering around, you will be excluded from the activities we have planned for you guys tomorrow. Comprende?” We all mumbled our agreements. “Remember, your parents entrusted you to me, so don’t do anything to make me look bad. I wouldn’t want this trip to end with me having to suspend some of you from the team.” He clapped to show that was that. “Okay, I won’t keep you out here any longer. We had a long day, and it’s time to rest up. I’ll see you all in the morning.” He left us to do our business, and went about putting out the fire.

     Farlan turned the flashlight on his cell phone and shone it in my face.

     “Fucking hell,” I said, shielding my eyes with my arm. “Coach hasn’t put out the fire yet, why do you have that out?”

     “Because it’ll be out soon, and I’m not going to be stuck in the dark.”

     “Scared?”

     He shoved me. “Just come on.”

     I followed him into our tent, stepping over Armin’s sleeping bag, which had been moved.

     “Wasn’t your sleeping bag over there?” I pointed to the empty spot beside Farlan’s.

     “It was, but Jean suggested we move our sleeping bags closer together, since it’s going to get cold during the night.”

     “Did he now?” I couldn’t suppress the smile that spread across my face. “Well, make sure you keep each other nice and warm. Wouldn’t want you to catch a cold.”

     Armin mouthed, “Shush,” but he was smiling too.   

     Once everyone was inside their sleeping bags, I crawled into mine and turned onto my side, so that I was facing Eren. He made a point of showing me that he hadn’t zipped up his sleeping bag. We exchanged knowing looks and pretended to go to sleep.


	12. Chapter 12

The tent had gone quiet over twenty minutes ago. Still, the fear of being caught kept me tucked inside my sleeping bag. I lay there, listening for movement, but all I heard was the sound of my own breathing. _It’s now or never,_ I thought, nerves twisting my stomach into knots. This was stupid and reckless, but I couldn’t help but feel a rush of excitement as I crawled up to where Eren was lying. In the dark, he was a misshapen lump on the ground.

     “Eren?” I whispered, stroking my fingers through the hair that stuck out from beneath the sleeping bag. No answer. “You awake?” I uncovered his head and his hand shot out to wrap around the back of my neck. I gasped in surprise when he pulled me down, but he swallowed the sound as his mouth covered mine. Our tongues met, clumsy and hot, and the knots in my stomach turned feathery light with anticipation. “You were awake the whole time,” I accused, making a pathetic noise in the back of my throat as he kissed a trail to my ear.

     He chuckled, then nipped my earlobe. The sensation made the fine hairs on my arms rise. “Are you mad?”

     “No.”

     “Then get in here with me.”

     I glanced back at the other people in the tent. Inside their sleeping bags, Farlan, Jean, and Armin were still and fast asleep. I hoped it would stay that way.

     “Scoot over,” I said. As I slid in next to him, he reached behind me, tugged the zipper shut, and cocooned us in a world made up of two. For some time, we were quiet, nothing but the distant sound of crickets chirping. Then he leaned forward and our lips parted under each other. I never got tired of the taste of his mouth, or the way every lap of his tongue turned my muscles into liquid. His kisses made me feel lost in an electric haze. I couldn’t think, or do much of anything other than let him take me apart.   

     He pushed my shirt up, and his mouth detached from mine to press wet kisses along my throat and the curve of my collarbone. When he leaned back, I sucked in a breath of air, but then his teeth grazed my nipple. My hips bucked, a shock of heat rippling throughout my body.

     “Eren,” I moaned. I turned my head to the side and pressed the backside of my hand against my mouth, afraid to make another sound.

     “Don’t. I want to hear you.”

     “We can’t. Not here.”

     He sat up. I felt cold without his weight on me. “What if we go somewhere else?” he asked.

     “Go somewhere else? Like where?”

     “One of the vans. Coach didn’t lock them up.”

     The vans weren’t parked far away from camp, but they were far enough. No one would be able to see or hear us in there, but was it worth the risk? If Coach Turret caught us, not only would people find out about our relationship, but Eren could get suspended from the team. This trip would become a nightmare overnight.

     “Are you sure?” I asked. “If someone sees us—”

     “No one’s going to see us. Everyone is asleep.”

     I wanted to be fearless and daring, but my brain kept providing me with possible outcomes that could lead to disaster. Scenario one: we walk out of our tent and Coach is out there keeping watch. Or, scenario two: We make it to the van, thinking we’re safe, then Coach knocks on the window. What would we do if that happened? What would we say? It’s not like there were a lot of explanations we could give for being locked in a van with kiss-swollen lips and hard-ons.

     “If we get caught,” I began, pressing my hand over his mouth when he went to speak, “we say we forgot something in the van. I’ll take the blame and convince Coach that I woke you up and made you come with me.”

     He kissed my palm. “Why would I let you take the blame?”

     “Uh, one, I’m not on the football team, so I can’t get suspended. And two, I said so.”

     “You’re a bossy little thing, aren’t you?”

     “Eren, I’m being serious here.”

     He moved my hand away from his mouth. “Okay, okay. If we get caught, I’ll let you take the blame. Happy now?”

     “Very.” I rolled onto my stomach and checked to see if the others were still asleep. They were. “Come on. Let’s get out of here before someone wakes up.”

     Barefoot, we snuck out of the tent. Outside we were met with piercing darkness and dry, brittle winds. I listened for sounds that were out of place, but aside from our footsteps, there were no unusual noises.

     Eren took my hand and led me through the dark. I regretted not putting on my shoes. The ground was covered in sharp twigs and rocks. Not to mention that if a rat ran across my foot now, there would be no barrier between me and it.

     “Go faster,” I whispered, imagining a rat scurrying out to feast on my toes.

     “We’re almost there. Look.” He pointed ahead. The vans were a welcomed sight. 

     We chose the one facing away from the tents. Eren pulled open one of the back doors and we climbed inside. When he started to close the door behind us, I said, “Slowly.”

     “Very slowly.” He managed to shut it without making a sound. Then he turned to me. A moment later, his thumb skimmed over my lips, soft and deliberate; asking an unspoken question. _Can I kiss you? Can we pick up where we left off?_ In answer, I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him to me.

     This kiss was different than the one we shared in the tent. There was a desperation behind it that had us gripping onto each other, touching too hard and too fast, making everything sloppy and clumsy. And when Eren broke away from the kiss this time, I followed, recapturing his lips.

     “I can’t stand this,” he said on a breath, tongue dipping back into my mouth a second later. “I want to be inside of you so badly.”

     I shivered at the admission, even when I knew we couldn’t take it that far tonight. But I still remembered what I’d hinted at back when we were brushing our teeth, and the thought of giving him his first blowjob made me shove him back against the seat. He looked surprised by the sudden change of pace, but then I sank to my knees in front of him and surprise gave way to something else. I pushed his legs apart with a grin and leaned forward between them. “How many times have you imagined me doing this?” I asked as I palmed the bulge in his pants. His cock twitched.

     “Too many times,” he admitted.

     “Oh? How do I do it? Nice and slow? Or fast and messy?” I unbuttoned his jeans and dragged the zipper down.

     He swallowed hard. “You can do it however you want to.”

     “That doesn’t answer my question.”

     “Fast and messy.”

     “Mm.” I rolled his boxers down and grabbed him at the base. Being in the dark emboldened me. If he would have been able to see me, doubt would’ve made me hesitate, but since he couldn’t, I pressed my tongue flat against the head and licked up the pre-come leaking from the tip. It tasted bitter, but somehow that turned me on even more.

     I took him into my mouth and Eren groaned, “Fuck,” as he buried his hands in my hair. His cock was so hot, throbbing hard against my tongue. I pushed my head forward and then pulled back, over and over. Saliva ran thick down the corners of my mouth, but I couldn’t bring myself to care; not with the sounds he was making. He kept moaning my name, kept clutching onto me as though he couldn’t stop himself. When I hummed around him, his hips jerked forward and the tip of his cock hit the back of my throat. “Shit,” he said thickly, thrusting into my mouth as he held my head in place. “I can’t last much longer.”

     I eased back and started stroking him, using my saliva as lube.

     “Levi I—where...?”

     “Come on my face,” I said.

     “God...” He rocked into my hand and then stiffened, groaning deep when his orgasm hit. His come shot across my face. It was hot and sticky.

     Several moments passed before either of us moved. The first thing I did was search for something to wipe my face with, but there wasn’t much of anything in the van. “Well, crap,” I said. Come was running down my forehead, getting way too close to my eyes. I wondered if some of it got into my hair. That would be fun to explain in the morning, when I woke up with a tuft of hair covered in dried come. “Crap,” I repeated.

     Eren snapped back to reality at the sound. “Here, I’ll check inside the glove compartment.” He tucked himself back into his pants and leaned between the two front seats. I heard him digging around, then, “Found some napkins.”

     I expected him to hand them over, but he turned around and wiped my face clean. “You came a lot,” I commented.

     “I also came too fast.”

     I laughed. “It was your first time getting a blowjob, what did you expect?” When he didn’t add more to the conversation, I said, “Don’t tell me you’re embarrassed.”

     He crumpled the napkin. “I’m not embarrassed.”

     “Then?”

     “I was thinking”—he curled his arm around my back and pulled me to him—“it’s your turn.”

     “You don’t have to do anything. Mm.” He kissed my neck, teeth grazing over my skin. “W-we should be heading back to the tent.”

     “I thought I told you I want to make you come as many times as I can.” He reached down and cupped my dick through my jeans. The air in my lungs rushed out of me. “Look at how hard you are. Did blowing me turn you on?”

     “Eren...”

     “Did it?”

     I nodded, too embarrassed to admit it aloud. When he worked open the fly of my jeans, I clutched onto his shoulders, waiting...

     There was a sound. It was faint and far off, but both of us froze in place.

     “Did you hear that?” I hissed, everything else forgotten.

     “Yeah.”

     I gestured for him to get down. We both lowered ourselves to the floor. After a while, Eren shifted towards the door and leaned up high enough to look out the window.

     “There’s nothing,” he said.

     “How can you be so sure when it’s this dark out?”

     He peered at me over his shoulder. “I’m not sure. But if it was Coach, don’t you think he would have been here by now?”

     “Let me look.” I squeezed in beside him and gazed out the window. It was too dark to make out anything other than the tops of the tents. I squinted, but there was nothing to see. “You’re right. It’s not Coach Turret. With how tall he is, we would have been able to see him moving around.” I scooted closer to Eren. The warm amber smell of his cologne was a pleasant distraction. “What do you think it was?”

     “Don’t know. Maybe an animal.”

     “An animal?”

     He pulled me onto his lap and nuzzled my hair. “Don’t worry. Even if it is an animal, it can’t get us in here.”

     “Yeah, but we have to go out there at some point.”

     “But not right now.”

     “Not right now,” I agreed, tucking my head under his chin. The warmth of his body set me at ease and made me sleepy.

     “Hey, Levi?”

     “Hmm?”

     He stayed quiet for a long time, long enough to make me think he’d changed his mind about saying whatever he’d planned on saying. Then, in a voice so low I had to strain to hear it, he said, “I’ve decided to come out to my parents when I get back home.”

     I sat up straight, looked at him. “Really?”

     “Yeah. I don’t know how they’ll take it, or if things will turn out okay, but if they do...” he trailed off.

     “If they do?”

     “If they do, I’d like you to meet them.” He tucked a lock of hair behind my ear, moving his hand down to cup the side of my face. “I’m tired of hiding our relationship. I want to be able to do normal things with you, like hold your hand in public and go out on dates. And I know—I know it’s going to be hard, but I don’t want to spend the rest of my life hiding who I am. Pretending to be something that I’m not drains me.”

     “I know, and I’ll support you in whatever decision you make.”

     “So you’ll let me take you to prom?”

     I gaped at him. “You’re thinking that far ahead?”

     “It’s only four months from now. So,” he drawled, “is that a yes or a no?”

     I kissed him. “You fool, that’s a yes.”

     He smiled against my lips. We stayed like that for some time, just holding each other, but then he said, “I didn’t get you off.”

     “It doesn’t matter. My hard-on died when we heard that noise earlier. Plus”—I ducked my head, feeling shy—“when we get back home, we can take it a step further.”

     He slid his fingers beneath my chin and tilted my head back. Our eyes met. “Are you sure you’re ready for that? I don’t want to rush you into anything you might regret later.”

     “I’m sure, Eren,” I said.

     When he’d kissed me in the bathroom in the boys’ locker room, I would have leaped tall buildings in a single bound just to have sex with him. But it would have been meaningless, driven by years of lust and nothing more. Now I trusted him with parts of myself I hadn’t shared with anyone, and I knew he felt the same way about me.

     “I’m sure,” I repeated. “Are you?”

     “In every way.”

     I wished we could stay out here for the rest of the night, but I didn’t want to risk ruining this moment by getting caught. So I bumped my forehead against his and said, “Let’s go back to the tent for now.”

     “Okay.”

     Blissed-out, I’d completely forgotten about the noise that had startled us earlier. It was the furthest thing from my mind. That is, until we stepped out of the van and heard it again. It sounded like dried leaves crunching under someone’s foot. My initial reaction was to shout or run, but both would wake up the entire camp, so I just stood there, paralyzed.

     “Where’d it come from?” Eren asked.

     “I don’t know.”

     The sound was growing louder now. It was definitely footsteps, each one louder than the last. Someone was coming.

     I snatched Eren’s hand, ready to drag him back to the tent before the person walking this way could reach us, but then a beam of light trained on my face. Stunned, I cursed and shielded my eyes with my arm.

     “Levi?”

     That was not Coach Turret’s voice. _Thank god it’s not Coach Turret’s voice!_ “Armin, is that you? What are you doing out here?”

     “Mother nature called,” Armin said, pointing the flashlight downwards.

     “Well, what do you know? Same here.”

     Armin snickered, catching onto my lie. He knew why we were out here. “Well, now that we took care of that, let’s head back together.”

     When he turned around and started walking back to our tent, Eren leaned in close and asked, “Am I missing something here?”

     “Just that we have more people that understand than you think.”

 

\---

 

The next morning I regretted having ever been born. I hadn’t slept a wink, and Coach Turret thought it would be an amazing idea to kick off the day with a group hike up the mountain near our camp. By midday, my legs were on the brink of extinction.

     “How much further up?” I wheezed more than said, clutching onto the sleeve of Farlan’s T-shirt to keep myself upright.

     “We still have some ways to go until we reach the top. If someone hadn’t stayed up all night, this would’ve been a breeze.”

     “Do we have to do this now, when I’m dying?”

     He rolled his eyes. “You’re not going to die. Coach is planning on stopping soon. Apparently there’s a lake up here.”

     I didn’t care where we stopped, so long as we stopped. I needed to rest for a solid twenty minutes if I was going to have any hope of making it the rest of the way.

     As if he’d heard my thoughts, Coach Turret said, “We’re almost to the halfway point. We’ll be stopping there for some lunch.”

     Everyone seemed relieved that we would get a break from walking.

     While I trudged along at a snail’s pace, Eren stopped beside me and held out a bottle of water. Beads of condensation trickled down the sides. I had no idea how he came across some cold water out here, but I took it, twisted off the lid, and drank several gulps. Then I pressed the bottle to my forehead in hopes of cooling down some. This morning I’d been freezing and reluctant to leave the warmth of my sleeping bag, now all this walking had caused me to work up a sweat.

     “Your cheeks are so red,” Eren said.

     “I’m hot.”

     “I know you are.”

     I knocked my shoulder against his arm and handed him the bottle back. “Who gave you the cold water?”

     “Armin’s dad. He gave one to me and Jean.” As he spoke, he lifted the bottle to his mouth and took a drink. We’d French kissed so many times by now, I’d lost count, but seeing him drink after me made something in my stomach pinch. “What?” he asked, when he noticed me staring.

     “Nothing.” I turned away and decided to steer the conversation in a different direction. “Farlan told me there’s a lake at the halfway point. Do you think Coach will let us take a dip?”

     “Maybe. The sooner we get there the sooner we’ll find out.” He latched onto my wrist and dragged me forward.

     My legs were useless by the time we reached the lake, but the sight of it made the whole trek worthwhile. It wasn’t too big, but the water was clear and surrounded by tall pine trees that scented the air.

     “Before any of you can ask,” Coach said, plopping down on a large rock, “you can go swimming, but you’ll have to make the rest of the trip with wet underwear.”

     None of the boys seemed to care about that. Already a majority of them were peeling off their sweat-soaked T-shirts and tossing them onto the grass. Farlan was amongst them. He was in the middle of unbuckling his belt when he called out to me, “You coming?”

     “Yeah, I’ll be there in a minute.” I stripped down to my boxers and put my clothes on a flat rock, beside Eren’s. Then we ran for the lake, only to realize we still had our shoes on. But we didn’t stop. We kicked our feet hard enough to send them flying, and stumbling and laughing, we slipped off our socks and chucked them to the ground. “You think we’ll be able to find those later on?”

     “Who cares.”

     I laughed, not caring at all. “You owe me a new pair of socks.”

     “I’ll buy you twenty new pairs.”

     When we reached the lake’s edge, we jumped in without pause. The water closed in over my head, so cold I shot up to the surface and screamed, “Shit!”

     Several of the boys laughed, their eyes darting to where Coach Turret sat. All he said was, “I’m too tired for this,” while he reached for the sling pack at his feet. He unzipped the bottom compartment and took out a bag of trail mix. “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that, but if you slip up again, I’ll have to lecture you on why students shouldn’t curse, even when all the faculty do.” That earned him more laughter.

     “It won’t happen again,” Farlan said, shooting me his best dad glare.

     “It won’t,” I confirmed.

     Coach waved his hand in dismissal. “Good, good.”

     Eren swam closer to me. When he dove underwater, I didn’t think anything of it until his hands wrapped around my ankle, but by then it was too late. He pulled me under. My feet touched down on the mossy rocks at the bottom, and I kicked off them, resurfacing. I spat out a mouthful of water, about to get on him for doing that, but he was smiling, his wet hair pushed back away from his face. In the sunlight, his green eyes were flecked with gold.

     Underwater, I reached for his hand, which had already been reaching for mine. We met somewhere in the middle, fingers sliding between fingers, two matching puzzle pieces coming together. My hand felt like it belonged in his, and it was where I wanted it to be; where I’d always want it to be.      

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like how I can go from smut to fluff real quick. Is this a hidden talent, or what? But, hey, I finally found my writing muse again, so I'm hoping to update this thing faster. It's been a year, and I'm only 12 chapters in. What kind of blasphemy is that? Eren would be disappointed in me, and I can't have that!


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember how I mentioned I got my writing muse back in the end notes of last chapter? Well, guess what? Life has KO'd that. I'm suffering, guys. I'm S U F F E R I N G. :')  
> I hope you enjoy this chapter, though.

Due to the rainstorm, business was slow at Vinyl Record. No one had come into the store for the past two hours. To keep myself occupied, I’d started to unpack boxes of records Hanji stored in the backroom. They had been collecting dust for months now. Isabel, the only other person here, watched me sort through them from behind the front counter. When she got bored of that, she brought another box out and set it down at my feet. I crouched to flip through the records piled inside, and picked out several that could be put in the Classic Rock bin.

     “You missed one. Here.” She handed me a Pearl Jam record. The pink sleeve was faded and torn in one corner. When I took it from her without a word, she said, “Is something going on with you? You’ve been quiet all afternoon.” She nudged me with her elbow. “Come on, tell me what’s on your mind.”        

     There were too many things on my mind. Ever since I’d returned home from the camping trip, I kept thinking about Eren coming out to his parents. It seemed unreal until he’d pulled me aside at school earlier today. In the privacy of the custodial room, he’d told me he planned on telling them tonight, while I stood here at work organizing stupid records. I wanted to run to the backroom and check my phone to see if I had any missed calls from him, but the last four times I’d done that, there had been no new notifications. That worried me. Why hadn’t he texted me yet? Had something gone wrong?

     “Okay, that’s enough,” Isabel said at my silence, taking the records out of my hand. She dumped them into the bin. “I think it’s time for us to take a break.”

     “We took a break earlier.”

     “So what? Look around. There’s no one here.”

     That was true enough. Who wanted to come into a record store on a rainy Friday night? There were better places to be. Hell, I wouldn’t even be here if I hadn’t taken time off to go on the camping trip last weekend. I’d be at home, tucked under a blanket clutching my phone as I waited for a call from my boyfriend.

     Isabel didn’t wait for me to agree to taking another break. She ushered me into Hanji’s office, where she pushed me down into a worn computer chair. Then she hopped onto the wooden desk that stood between us, propped her chin up on laced fingers, and said, in her best counselor voice, “Now tell me what’s going on with you.”

     There were only a handful of people who knew about my relationship with Eren, and none of them were available to talk right now. And I needed to talk to someone, so I decided to confide in her. “You remember that guy I told you about? The one I’m fooling around with?”

     “You mean Eren?”

     My eyes widened. “What? What are you talking about? I never told you it was Eren.”

     “Oh, please. Do you think I was born yesterday? I’ve noticed you two getting close. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out there’s something going on there.” She glanced at me. “Stop looking at me like that. Your secret is safe with me.”

     “I... Shit. I know that. You just surprised me.” I blew out a breath to compose myself. “Anyway, we’re not just fooling around anymore. He’s my boyfriend. He has been for a while.”

     “Okay, but that doesn’t explain why you look like you’re about to scream at the top of your lungs.”

     I ran my hands down my face. Talking about this was harder than I thought. “I probably look stressed out, because I am stressed out.” I paused. “He’s coming out to his parents today.”

     “What? And you’re here? You should be, I don’t know, parked in front of his house, waiting for him to tell you how it went.”

     “I want to be there, but he told me not to worry, that he’d call me when everything was said and done. But he hasn’t called and I’m freaking out.”

     She put her hands on my shoulders, jostling me, and said one word, “Go.”

     “But my shift doesn’t end for another hour.”

     “Who cares about that? Just go. I’ll take care of everything until Hanji comes back.”

     “Are you sure?”

     “Levi, go, before I drag you out of this store. Your boyfriend needs you.”

     That last line convinced me. Why had I come into work in the first place? This was an important moment in Eren’s life. He needed my support more than ever. So, with a nod, I stood, thanked her, and ran to the backroom to gather my things. The room was empty aside from a folding table pushed up against the east wall. That’s where I found my phone, crammed beneath my jacket and car keys. When I picked it up, I half expected to have no new messages. Maybe that would have been better than scrolling through countless missed calls that weren’t from Eren. They were all from Jean.

     An alarm went off in my head. Something had to be wrong.

     I called him back, startled when he answered on the first ring. “Levi,” he said in a rush, “tell me Eren’s with you.”

     “No, he’s not. I’m at work. What’s going on?”

     “I’m not sure if anything is going on, but he called me an hour ago and left me a strange voicemail. I don’t know. He didn’t sound like himself, so I drove over to his place to check up on him, but he wasn’t there.”

     “Have you tried calling him?”

     “Yeah, but he hasn’t picked up or returned any of my calls. Look, I know this sounds like I’m overreacting, but I have a really bad feeling about this. His parents don’t even know where he is. Do you know how unusual that is for his mom? She always asks him where he’s going whenever he leaves the house.” He made an odd sound, then, “You’re probably wondering why I’m calling you, but you and him have been hanging out a lot lately, so I thought I’d give it a shot.”

     I slipped on my jacket and hurried out of the room. The more I heard, the more anxious I became. “Keep on trying to reach him. I’m getting off work right now, so I’ll be home soon. I’ll see if he’s there.”

     “I—Yeah, okay. If he’s there, tell him to text me.” He ended the call.

     As I slid my phone into my back pocket, I thought about how confused Jean must be. It was clear he couldn’t understand why Eren would turn up at my house and not his. They were best friends, while I was just a newcomer. He had no way of knowing that Eren and I were much closer than he thought we were; that I knew more about this situation than he did. _Sorry, Jean. You’ll have to stay in the dark for a little while longer._

Outside, the rain was coming down hard. It whipped at my face as I shoved through the door and stepped out onto the sidewalk. Ducking my head under the hood of my jacket, I raced to my car, which I’d parked down the street for lack of finding a better parking space. The 2004 Ford Laser looked beaten up under the dim yellow streetlight. The blue paint was chipped and scratched, the window tint bubbled and faded. It wasn’t the prettiest car, but it had been the only one within my mom’s budget. That had made it perfect to me.    

     When I reached it, I flung open the driver’s side door and climbed inside. I’d been out in the rain for a few minutes, maybe less, but already I was soaked. I cursed as I started the car and merged with traffic.

     The drive home couldn’t have taken longer than twenty minutes, but it felt like a small eternity had passed by the time I turned onto my street. I slowed down to keep an eye on the side of the road for Eren’s truck. The rain made it hard to see anything. Behind the speckled windshield, everything looked blurry. I almost lost hope that he’d come to my house at all, but then I spotted it, hidden behind my neighbor’s SUV. Seeing it there confirmed my worst fears. Things hadn’t gone well with his parents.

     I pulled into the driveway and almost slammed on the brakes when my headlights passed over Eren sitting on my front porch. “Fuck,” I gasped, my heart thumping hard in my chest. That had scared me. How long had he been out there? Since he’d called Jean an hour ago? With this rain, he must have been soaked to the bone.

     The instant the engine cut off, I threw open the door and stepped out of the car. Eren didn’t move as I approached him. He kept his head hung between his legs. “Eren?” I said, just loud enough to be heard over the rain. He staggered to his feet at the sound of my voice, startling me back a step, and closed the distance between us. He dropped his head on my shoulder. I rubbed some warmth back into his arms. “You’re freezing. When did you get here?”

     “I don’t know.” He made a choked sound in the back of his throat. “Levi, I... I’m so stupid.”

     I leaned back to look at him, but he avoided meeting my gaze. I gathered his face in my hands. “Hey, let’s go inside, okay? We can talk about it once we’re out of the rain and in some dry clothes.”

     He nodded and let me lead him into the house, as trusting as a small child. I found that none of the lights were working. The storm must have caused a power outage. In the bathroom, I lit a row of candles my mom kept on the sink. They provided enough light for me to see that his eyes were red from crying. “I’m dripping all over your floor,” he said with a laugh. Or at least it started off that way. By the end, it turned into a sob.

     “Did they hurt you?”

     “What?”

     “Did they hurt you?” I repeated. “If they did something to you, I want you to tell me. They can’t get away with it.”

     “No, they didn’t hurt me. At least not physically.” He sat down on the lid of the toilet and stayed quiet for a long time. When he spoke again, his voice was strained. “I’m so naïve. I thought everything would work out. I’m their son, they love me, so they’ll accept it, right?” He shook his head. “God, I’m so stupid. The way they looked at me when I told them... You would think I’d turned into someone else. The first thing they asked me was if I was joking around. I could tell they were hoping I was. And you know what the worst part is? Part of me wanted to laugh it off and say, ‘Yeah, I’m joking! You caught me. I’m not really gay,’ because I knew things would go back to normal that way. But only for them. For me, I’d go back to hiding.”

     “Hey,” I started, but he looked at me with so much pain in his eyes, I faltered.

     “Is there something wrong with us? Is there something wrong with wanting to hold your hand and kiss you? Am I abnormal?”

     I gritted my teeth, then fell to my knees and wrapped him in my arms. He clung onto me, shaking as he started to cry in earnest. “There is nothing wrong with you,” I said. “They’re the ones that are too narrow minded to see that you haven’t changed.”

     “I hate this. I just—I wanted them to accept and love me as I am, but they won’t. They won’t and...that kills me.”

     All I could do was hold him. No matter what I said, I knew it wouldn’t be enough. I couldn’t erase what his parents had done.

     “You don’t have to go home tonight,” I told him. “You can stay here for as long as you need to.” Sooner or late he’d have to face his parents again, but at least for the time being, I could shelter him from reality.

     For tonight, we could pretend that nothing was wrong.

 

\---

 

Not long after Eren changed into a pair of sweatpants, which were too snug on him thanks to our considerable difference in size, he climbed into my bed and fell asleep. The whole ordeal with his parents had exhausted him. Staying out in the rain for an hour hadn’t helped anything, either. He was coming down with a fever now, his skin hot and clammy to the touch. I wanted to wake him to give him some cold medicine, but decided against it. He needed to rest.  

     To not disturb him, I stepped out of the room to call Jean. It was after ten, but I had a feeling he was still up and waiting for a text from Eren.

     “Hello?” he answered, sounding wide awake.

     “Hey, I’m sorry for calling you so late. I just wanted to let you know that Eren’s at my place. He would have called you himself, but he’s asleep now.”

     Jean sighed in relief, then asked, “Is he okay at least? What happened?”

     The worry in his voice was hard to miss. He cared about Eren a lot. That much was clear, but it wasn’t my place to tell him what went on tonight. “Yeah, he’s fine,” I said, trying to figure out a way to go about this. “I know you’re confused about what’s going on, but it’s not my place to tell you why Eren ended up here. When he’s ready to talk, I’m sure—”

     “You don’t need to explain,” he interrupted. “I think I know what’s going on. Just tell him that I’m here for him, no matter what. And Levi?”

     “Yeah?”

     “Take care of him, okay?”

     “I will.”

     After we hung up, I stood there in the dark hallway wondering if Jean knew that his best friend was gay. We hadn’t exactly been subtle during the camping trip. More often than not Eren had snuck off with me rather than stay behind with his friends. I knew we were being too obvious, but he didn’t seem to mind it. He had been too caught up in the fantasy that he’d come out to his parents and everything would turn out okay; that soon we’d be able to act like a couple out in the open without any worries. Now that fantasy had been shattered by reality.

     This hurt. I hated seeing Eren close himself off again when it had taken an immense amount of courage to come out to his parents. How could they ask him if he was joking? How could they belittle him like that?

     I clenched my hands, furious, and returned to my room to find Eren sitting up in bed. I rushed over. “What are you doing up? Did I wake you?”

     “No, you didn’t.”

     “Are you feeling okay?” I pressed the back of my hand to his forehead, then his cheeks. “You’re burning up.”

     “I’ll be alright,” he said, looking at me. “You were talking to someone.”

     “I was on the phone with Jean. When I was leaving work earlier, he called me asking about you. He’s really worried.”

     “I almost told him about us. About me.”

     “Do you still want to tell him?”

     He shook his head. “I don’t know. After what happened with my parents, I’m not sure if I’m ready to tell anyone else.”

     “You don’t have to. It’s completely up to you.”

     He stayed quiet. Minutes passed before he broke the silence. “I don’t want to go home.”

     “Then don’t. You’ll be turning eighteen in two months. Just stay here with me.”

     “Won’t your mom have a problem with that?”

     “No,” I said, serious. This could work. “She’ll understand. And it won’t be for long. At the end of this year I’ll be eighteen, too, so we can move out. We’ll rent an apartment and—” His abrupt laughter cut me off. I looked at him, open mouthed, which caused him to laugh harder. “Why are you laughing? What did I say that was so funny?”

     “Nothing.”

     “Then?”

     He hugged me. “I’m sorry. Don’t be mad. You’re just so cute.” He kissed the side of my head. “Are you even listening to yourself, though? You sound like you have everything planned out. You want me to live here with you for a year, and then after that, you want us to move into an apartment together. You want to be with me for that long?”

     My cheeks heated up in a matter of seconds. I buried my face in his neck, attempting to hide myself. “And what if I said I do want to be with you for that long?”

     “Do you love me?”

     Both my brain and heart stopped working after they processed what he’d just asked me. How did we get here? Wasn’t he supposed to be sound asleep?

     _Oh, god, someone help me!_

     Embarrassment made me lean back too fast. I couldn’t bring myself to look at him. _I_ can’t _look at him! He’ll know if I look at him._ I made sure to keep my head lowered, my gaze trained on the duvet bunched at his feet. “You can’t—” I flapped my hands around as words failed me. “You can’t ask me that! You can’t just...” I groaned and covered my face with my hands. This was a total failure. “Don’t ask me that.”

     “Why?” He grabbed my wrists and pulled my hands away from my face. When he managed to pry them off, I turned my head to the side. “Levi, look at me.”

     I shook my head. “I refuse.”

     “Hey,” he leaned in close, lips pressing against the side of my neck, “do you love me?”

     “I won’t tell you. Not ever.”

     “You’re not denying it, though. Doesn’t that mean you do?”

     There was only one thing left to do now: change the subject. “You shouldn’t be up. Your fever will get worse.” I climbed out of bed while still looking at anything but him. “I’m going to go get some medicine for you to take. I’ll be back.” I fled the room without a backwards glance, all the while thinking about how obvious I’d been. Even if I hadn’t admitted it out loud, he had to know. And if I’d told him, would he have said it back?

     _No. Of course he won’t say it back. It’s too soon._ I had liked him for the past five years, but he’d only started liking me. We weren’t on the same page, not yet.

     In the bathroom, I opened the medicine cabinet and grabbed a bottle of cold medicine. I set it down on the sink, then sat on the toilet. I wasn’t ready to go back there and face him. What could I say to get him off the subject of love? Why did he want to know, anyway? We hadn’t been going out for that long. Things like this weren’t supposed to be discussed this early on, which led me to believe he was only asking out of curiosity. But what if there was something more behind it?

     I don’t know how long I stayed like that, but when I went back into my room, Eren was right where I’d left him. Without a word, I walked up to the bed and uncapped the bottle. I poured some of the medicine into the small plastic measuring cup and handed it to him. “This’ll help you sleep,” I said pathetically.

     Instead of taking it from me, he asked, while looking straight into my eyes, “Why won’t you answer me?”

     “Why do you want to know?”

     “Because I love you.”

     Time froze. I stared at him, my heart hammering out an uneven beat. I opened my mouth, but no words came out. “You’re...” I swallowed hard. The lump in my throat wouldn’t give way. “You’re confused. You can’t...”

     “I can, and I do. That’s why I came out to my parents today, because I know what I feel for you is real. Years from now, I want to still be with you. That’s how serious I am. Levi—”

     I clapped my hand over his mouth. “Don’t say anymore. If you say anymore, I’ll die.”

     Behind my hand, he asked, “Do you love me?”

     “Stupid, you know the answer to that.”

     “Say it.”

     “I love you.”

     He pulled me into his arms and we kissed and kissed. “It was worth it,” he said against my lips. “Telling my parents, it was worth it.”

     “How can you say that after what happened?”

     “Because I’ll make it past this. Even if my parents don’t ever come to accept me, I told them and it was worth it because you love me.”

     “You’re an idiot, Eren Jaeger,” I said as the tears in my eyes spilled over. I hugged him to me. “We’ll get past this together.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Levi can't express himself when he's embarrassed without low key being mean at the same time. I gave him my personality, so blame me, not him. But, wow, writing a self-indulgent fic has allowed me to have them tell each other "I love you" early on. This is why self-indulgent fics exist! 
> 
> Shout out to all the awesome babes who leave me comments and kudos. You're the best and I love you!!!


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been quite a while since my last update. I had to deal with some fandom drama that left me really unmotivated. If you follow me on Instagram, you've heard all about it, so I don't want to go into detail, but I'm finally getting back on track. So I hope you guys can forgive me for the delay, and that you enjoy reading this chapter. (・・；)
> 
> Also received some amazing fan art! You can check it out here: [♡](https://www.instagram.com/p/Bm_huEanJfK/) & [♡](https://weatheredwriter.tumblr.com/post/179830951779/levibuns-did-a-mini-doujin-fanart-of-personal)

The next morning I woke up alone in bed. It took my sleep-addled brain a moment to puzzle out what was missing here, then I shot up and kicked the blanket off me. Panic set in fast. I scanned my bedroom as I yanked on an old T-shirt, but there was no sign of Eren anywhere. Where could he have gone? Had his parents called and asked him to come home? But why wouldn’t he wake me first? The thought of him returning to his house alone twisted panic into fear. I didn’t know his parents, or what they were capable of doing to him. _What if they hurt him?_ I wondered. _Or pack him off to boot camp until he turns eighteen?_

     Alarmed by these thoughts, I slid my feet into my slippers and turned towards the door, ready to bolt. That’s when I heard a chuckle that stopped me dead in my tracks. I lifted my gaze to see Eren leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed over his bare chest. The sight of him filled me with relief, so tangible I almost sagged to the floor.

     “Do you always look this snazzy in the morning?” A gleam of amusement lit his eyes as he gestured to my wrinkled Misfits shirt and my black checkered slippers. “Or did you put this outfit together with me in mind?”

     “Don’t flatter yourself. My mom gave me these slippers for my birthday, so don’t you dare say another word,” I warned, pointing at him in an accusatory manner. “But that’s beside the point. Where were you?”

     “I went to the bathroom.”

     Feeling like a complete idiot for overreacting, I dropped my hand. “Oh.”

     “Why are you making that face? Did you think I left?” He walked up to me and combed his fingers through my hair, working out the knots. “I wouldn’t do that to you, leave without saying anything.”

     I leaned my head on his chest and let the tension go out of me. “I know. I just didn’t know what to think when I didn’t see you in the room.” Last night I had fallen asleep facing him, with his arms wrapped around me. I had expected to wake up the same way.

     “You were about to leave your house sporting those plaid boxers of yours. You must have been desperate.”

     “Shut up. I was in full panic mode, okay? I wasn’t paying attention to the fact that I’m not wearing any pants!” Now that I knew he wasn’t in any immediate danger, I became aware of two things at once: I had bedhead and morning breath. That dreadful combination had me taking a huge step back. “Let’s back up for a minute here. I literally just rolled out of bed. I must look super gross right now, so keep this distance between us until I shower and brush my teeth.”

     He ran his finger along the hem of my shirt, unconcerned by my frightening appearance. “Am I allowed to join you in the shower?”

     “Stupid, no. My mom will be home soon.”

     That caused quite an unexpected reaction. He darted around the room like someone had lit a fire under his ass, picked up my pajama bottoms, and chucked them in my general direction. Then he found his crumpled shirt under the bed and slipped it on. “Don’t just stand there. Put your pants on,” he said, flapping his hand around like my mom was going to walk in at any minute. Truth be told, she wouldn’t be back for another half hour.

     “Geez, I will. Don’t go and have a heart attack.”

     After we dressed, I grabbed his hand and led him down the hall to the bathroom. He didn’t question why I brought him in here, but when I pulled out a kids Crayola toothbrush from the medicine cabinet, he looked at me like he had no idea what I planned on doing with it.

     “My mom bought it for my cousin a while back,” I explained. “It’s the only extra toothbrush I have. Here.” I handed it to him.

     “At least it’s new. And look.” He tapped on the packaging, where it said _Flashing Light_ in big bold letters. “It lights up blue too.”

     I elbowed him in the arm. “Okay, smartass, be grateful that I even have a toothbrush for you to use.”

     He tore the package open and made a show of squeezing a glob of toothpaste onto the rainbow colored bristles. Then, with a heart-stopping smile, he started to brush his teeth. That smile was all that mattered. I wanted to keep it on his face for the rest of the day, but it was only a matter of time before his parents crept back into his thoughts. I wondered, as I grabbed my own toothbrush, if they were out looking for him right now. Had they called his friends to see if he’d stayed the night at one of their houses? Or were they sitting at home, too ashamed of their son to bring his disappearance to light? Even thinking about it enraged me.

     Noticing my sour expression, Eren spat a mouthful of foam into the sink. “What’s with the long face?”

     I shook my head, not wanting to bring up his parents.        

     “Hey,” he said, “you don’t need to worry about me. I’m okay.”

     I took one look at him and knew that wasn’t true. His entire world had been flipped upside down overnight. It would take more than half a day to adjust to the change. Still, if he wasn’t ready to face everything that happened, I wasn’t about to force him. So I rinsed out my mouth and said, “Does that mean you’re up for a drive?”

     “Depends. Where will we go?”

     “Anywhere you want to go.”

     “Take your shower, then. I know a place we can spend the afternoon at.” He kissed my forehead and left the bathroom.

     By the time Eren and I had swapped places in the shower, my mom was home from work. I found her leaning over the kitchen island as she went through a stack of mail. You would think after working for ten hours straight she’d look a bit frazzled, but there wasn’t a hair out of place. She looked pristine in her black scrubs.  

     “Hey, baby,” she said when she spied me.

     I sat on the barstool next to her. “Hey.”

     “What’s wrong? Is Eren not doing so good?”

     Last night, after Eren had drifted off to sleep, I’d texted her the details of what had happened when he came out to his parents. I wanted her to know why I’d offered to let him stay here for as long as he needed to. “He had a rough night,” I said, remembering how he checked his phone countless times just to see that his parents hadn’t bothered to call him. The look on his face when he realized they weren’t going to killed me. “Right now he’s putting on a brave front, but I don’t think it’s sunk in yet. And it’ll get worse when we go back to school. How is he supposed to keep everything together when all of this is happening?” I looked at her, desperate for an answer. “I want to help him, but I don’t know how. I can’t change his parents’ minds. I can’t fix this.”

     She pulled me into a hug. “It’s not your job to fix this. Right now what he needs is for someone to be here for him, and that’s exactly what you’re doing.”

     “But is it enough?”

     “It’s enough,” she said as she wiped away the tears on my cheeks. “Believe me.”

     From down the hall, I heard the bathroom door open. Eren was done showering. I wiped my eyes with the heels of my palms, and hoped he wouldn’t notice I’d cried. He already had enough on his plate.

     When he walked into the kitchen a moment later, wearing a set of clothes Farlan had left here, he said, “Good morning, Ms. Ackerman.”

     “Please, call me Kuchel. I feel like an old woman when people call me Ms. Ackerman.”

     “You’re not old,” I assured her.

     She kissed me on the side of the head. “You boys have any plans today?”

     “We’re going for a drive,” I said.

     “Well, don’t let me keep you. I’m beat from work, so I’m going to head to bed soon.” She regarded Eren with a warm smile. “The room down the hall is yours for however long you need it. Levi can help you set it up tomorrow. And if you need me to go to your house with you to get your stuff, just say the word, and I’ll be right there with you.” She stood up and put her hand on his shoulder. “No matter what you’re thinking, this isn’t your fault. There’s nothing wrong with you, and hopefully your parents will see that soon. If not, I’ll adopt you.”

     My eyes bulged. “Mom!”

     “Oh, right, he’s your boyfriend,” she said. “I’ll adopt him as my son-in-law, then.”

     How in the world did she think that was going to make things better?

     “Mom! Oh, my god, don’t say anything else! You’re just going to make it worse!”

     Eren smiled, which dispelled some of the awkwardness. “Thanks for taking me in. Without you and Levi, I don’t know where I’d be right now.”

     “You never have to find out,” Mom said, smoothly recovering from her blunder. “But”—she clapped me on the shoulder when she noticed my I-can’t-believe-you-did-this-to-me expression—“I’ll let you guys get going. I also put some money on your debit card, honey, so if you want to go pick up some breakfast, you can.”

     “Thanks,” I deadpanned.

     “Go on then.” She shooed me out of the kitchen.

     She did not have to shoo me away twice. I motioned for Eren to follow me as I swept out of the room with my last shred of dignity intact. My grand exit would have been spot on if I hadn’t forgotten to grab my car keys on the way out the front door. Patting down my pockets to make sure they were empty, I stopped halfway down the driveway and said, “Motherfucker, my keys,” with a lot of feeling. 

     From behind me, I heard, “Keep going. We can take my truck.”

     “Are you sure? I can run in real fast and get—”

     Eren scooped me up and carried me to his truck, somehow managing to open the passenger door with one hand. It shouldn’t have surprised me. Those arm muscles were no joke. “I’m sure,” he said as he sat me down on the seat. “Need buckling in?”

     “Huh? No. I’m fine.”

     “Really?” He put his hand on my upper thigh and gave it a soft squeeze. “I’m just remembering the first time I came to pick you up. You were so nervous you couldn’t work the seatbelt.”

     That thigh squeeze wasn’t fair, and he knew it! Now I was too conscious of him.

     “Don’t count on that happening again,” I grumbled, even as I reached for the seatbelt with hands that suddenly forgot their purpose. The way he was looking at me made me lose my train of thought. His eyes were so intense and focused, accentuated by his wet hair.  

     “Oh? Well, if you have it covered...” he trailed off, because I did not have it covered. I repeat: I did not have it covered. My fingers felt like shapeless, clumsy things. Every time I tried to close them around the belt, they wouldn’t cooperate. All the while he stood back and watched me make a complete fool out of myself. “You seem to be having some trouble.”   

     “It’s your fault. Stop looking at me.”

     “Levi?”

     Still fumbling with the seatbelt, I said, “What?”

     “I love you.”

     Like the night before, the world came to a complete stop. I turned my head and our eyes met. It would have been a perfect moment to lean in for a kiss, but neither of us moved. We just looked at each other, and somehow I knew, without a doubt, that things were going to be okay.

     “I love you, too, Eren.”

     And I did. I loved him, and that was enough.

     “I like hearing you say it,” he confessed, coiling a lock of my hair around his finger.

     “I won’t say it often, though.”

     He went from looking dreamy and content to looking like someone had shot him in the soul. “What? What does that mean?”

     “It means it’s embarrassing to say it out loud, okay? Don’t look at me like that, with those puppy dog eyes.” I covered his face with my hands. “It’s not like I don’t love you. I do. A lot. But saying it is embarrassing!”

     “Why are you yelling?”

     “Because it’s embarrassing!”

     He brushed my hands aside and touched my ear. “I guess it is. You’re blushing all the way to the tips of your ears.”

     “Ugh, don’t look at me! Just get in the truck and start driving, or I’m going to burst into flames.”

     “Okay, okay. I get it. I’m going.” He grabbed the seatbelt, buckled me in, and shut the passenger door. As he rounded the hood of the truck, I kept my eyes focused on a small crack in the front windshield. That’s where they remained, even after he climbed inside. “Do you want to grab something to eat first? I know this diner that makes great pancakes. We can stop by there, if you want.”

     “I’m fine with whatever you want.”

     “Not going to look at me when you say that?”

     “Nope.”

     Placing his hand in my lap, he asked, “Can I at least hold your hand?”

     For half a second I considered teasing him, but then he looped his finger around the bracelet he’d made me and tugged on it a few times. The engraving _E & L_ caught my eye right away. I touched the carved letters and knew teasing was out of the question. So, instead of messing around with him, I threaded our fingers together. It was cute how much that pleased him—if the shit eating grin on his face was anything to go by—but a moment later it vanished. Confused by the sudden change, I glanced up and saw a red Jeep Wrangler parking in front of my house. I recognized it at once. “Jean,” I said.

     “Shit.” Eren ducked for cover, but didn’t let go of my hand. “How does he know your address?”

     “I don’t know. I never told—” I broke off when Farlan pushed open the passenger door and stepped out.

     Well, that answered the question of how Jean found out where I lived, but why were they here?

     “I should’ve seen this coming,” Eren said. “He’s going to want to know what happened with my parents, but I can’t tell him. I won’t be able to take it if he looks at me like they did.” He squeezed the steering wheel. “...Like I’m abnormal.”

     Before I could figure out what to do, Jean came rushing up to the truck and pounded his fist on the hood. “Lucy, you have some ‘splaining to do!” His eyes darted to me. They narrowed. “You! Get lost for now. I need to talk to Eren alone.” He huffed on the window and wrote ALONE in capital letters in the mist his breath left on the window.

     “This guy is really your best friend?” I asked.

     Eren laughed. “Yeah. I don’t know for how much longer he’ll want to be my friend, though.”

     “You don’t have to tell him. Seriously, you can say you got into a fight with your dad and things got out of hand.”

     “That won’t work. He knows me too well. Plus, I’m done lying. If telling him I’m gay changes the way he sees me, then maybe we aren't meant to be friends.” He squeezed my hand. “Really, I’ll be okay.”

     _Liar. If he looks at you differently, you won’t be okay. It’ll hurt you. It’ll hurt you so much..._

     “Are you sure?” I knew he wasn’t.

     “Yeah. I’ll be back once we’re done talking. Knowing him, he’ll want to go somewhere else so he knows we’re alone. I’ll probably be gone for a while. I’m sorry.”  

     I shook my head and heard myself say, “Don’t apologize. I understand why you have to go, but if you need anything I’m only a call away.” I forced myself to smile. It felt strained, unnatural, so I turned away and opened the door. Jean did the rest for me. He all but dragged me out of the truck, which earned him a death glare from both Farlan and Eren, but he paid them no mind. He just waggled his fingers at me as he climbed into the passenger seat and shut the door behind him. I didn’t react to any of it, my attention on Eren and Eren alone.

     Farlan crossed the street in long, angry strides. He grabbed my arm, turning it from side to side, inspecting every inch of it. “Did that fucker hurt you?”

     “No.”

     “Really?” He whirled around and flipped Jean off as Eren drove away. “Remind me to beat his ass when they come back.”

     “Calm down. I mean it when I say I’m fine. He didn’t hurt me at all. It was all just for show.”

     “Still,” he persisted. “He shows up at my house out of nowhere, demands that I show him where you live, then treats you like shit, like whatever is going on is your fault.” He paused, then looked at me. “What is going on, anyway?” 

     I sighed. “Let’s go inside. It’s a long story.”

     Back inside the house, we cleared a spot for ourselves in my room, and as we sat there cross-legged on the floor, I told him about everything that happened. He didn’t say anything for a long time, then out of nowhere he shouted, “Fucking hell!” Followed by, “I never in my life thought I would want to comfort Eren damn Jaeger, but here I sit, actually wanting to comfort him. I also want to give his parents a piece of my mind. What kind of assholes turn their backs on their only kid? That makes me so angry. I need to punch something.”

     “Will you calm down already?” I held his arm down, just in case he lashed out. “It’s not that uncommon for parents to disown their kids after they come out. You know that. I wish that wasn’t how it is, but I can’t change things.” I released him. “You know, I’m really lucky. My mom accepted me right away, and so did you. My life didn’t change much after I came out. That’s not how it’ll be for Eren, though. Everything will change from here on out, and that scares me. I’m so scared of what this will do to him.”

     Eren Jaeger. Everyone at our high school knew about him, the top football player who had a reputation for being a playboy. But no one knew the real him, or that he put on a mask every day so people would accept him; so his own parents would accept him. No one knew how painful it was for him to pretend to be someone he wasn’t.  

     Why were there people out there who believed every person on this planet should be straight? Why wasn’t it okay for a boy to like a boy, or a girl to like a girl? Eren’s sexual preference wasn’t anyone’s fucking business but his own.

     “Are you crying?” Farlan said, practically screaming.

     I rubbed my eyes. “I don’t want to see him get hurt. I want to protect him, but I can’t do anything. I can’t—I can’t do anything, and it’s the worst feeling in the world.”

     He pulled me into a hug and held me while I cried. When my tears finally subsided, he said, “Eren’s not alone. He has you. And he’s pretty damn lucky for that, if you ask me.”

     “You’re just saying that because you’re my best friend.”

     “I’ve said a lot of things because I’m your best friend, like telling you that outfit you wore last week was nice—it wasn’t, by the way—but I’m not just saying this to cheer you up. You’re one of the best people I’ve ever met.”

     I leaned back and glared at him. “What was wrong with my outfit?”

     “That’s all you took from that?”

     “Don’t change the subject! Answer the question!”

     “Levi Ackerman, I swear to god...”

     “Don’t give me that. I will punch you in the face, Farlan Church. Tell me what was wrong with my outfit.”

     “You really want to know?” he asked. “Fine. I’ll tell you. You wore green and red together, and frankly, you looked like a Christmas tree. And not in a good way.”

     “I’m so offended right now. One of the top ten anime betrayals happened right here in this very house.”

     He burst out laughing. “You’re so full of shit.”

     “So are you,” I shot back.

     He pulled me into another hug. “Hey, no matter what happens, I’m always going to be here for you. And I’ll keep an eye on Eren at school. If things don’t go well with Jean, I’ll make sure he doesn’t spread rumors around.”

     “What are you going to do? Beat him up?”

     “If I have to,” he said.

     “Moron, you’ll get kicked off the football team.”

     “So what? You and Eren are more important.”

     I smiled a trembling smile and hugged him back. “You’re kind of the best.”

     “Tell me something I don’t know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be in Eren's POV. We'll get to see how his conversation with Jean goes. I'm excited to write it. I've been waiting for this. *rubs hands together*
> 
> As usual, thank you so much for reading, leaving kudos, and comments! <3

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are welcome and much appreciated! 
> 
> You can find my contact info here: [✉](https://dressedindarkness.carrd.co/)


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